Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

Sir Wilfred Hastings "Arch" Harrington, (17 May 1906 – 17 December 1965) was a senior officer in the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

(RAN), who served as First Naval Member and Chief of the Naval Staff from 1962 to 1965.

Naval service

Born as the son of Hubert Ernest Harrington and his wife Laura Irene Barton, "Arch" Harrington was educated at Wychbury Preparatory School in Maryborough. In 1924, he joined the

Royal Australian Naval College HMAS Creswell is a training facility of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) that includes the Royal Australian Naval College (RANC) as well as the School of Survivability and Ship's Safety, Beecroft Weapons Range, and an administrative support depa ...

as a cadet

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...

.Hastings Harrington at Australian Dictionary of Biography
/ref> He served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

initially in command of the sloop HMAS ''Yarra'',U-boat.net
/ref> in which he saw action off the coast of

Shatt al-Arab The Shatt al-Arab () is a river about in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the Iran– ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

in May 1941 and for which role he was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. For his services in the War against

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in August 1941 he was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

. In February 1942 he moved to the

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

HMAS ''Australia'' as Executive Officer, in which role he was again mentioned in dispatches, and in July 1944 he took command of the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

HMAS ''Quiberon''. Promoted to captain in 1947, he was given command of the destroyer HMAS ''Warramunga'' and in 1950 became Director of Manning at the Navy Office in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. He took command of the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

HMAS ''Sydney'' in 1955, and following his promotion to rear admiral in 1957, he became Flag Officer, East Australia Area. He went on to be Second Naval Member of the Naval Board in 1958, Flag Officer commanding HM Australian Fleet in 1959 and First Naval Member and Chief of Naval Staff in 1962.

Post service and death

Harrington was appointed Commissioner-General for Australia at

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

, but died in

Canberra Hospital Canberra Hospital is a public hospital located in Garran, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. It is the largest district general hospital in the region with 672 beds catering to a population of about 550,000. It was formed when the Woden V ...

in December 1965. On 20 December, the

ashes Ashes may refer to: * Ash, the solid remnants of fires. Media and entertainment Art * ''Ashes'' (Munch), an 1894 painting by Edvard Munch Film * ''The Ashes'' (film), a 1965 Polish film by director Andrzej Wajda * ''Ashes'' (1922 film), ...

of Vice Admiral Sir Hastings Harrington were scattered from HMAS ''Vampire'' off the coast of Sydney.Bastock p. 322

Family

In 1945, he married Agnes Janet Winser; they had two sons and two daughters.

References

Sources

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrington, Hastings 1906 births 1965 deaths Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Bath Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College Royal Australian Navy admirals Military personnel from Queensland