page_title: Alan McNicoll
section_title: Rise to Chief of Naval Staff
hierarchical_section_title: Alan McNicoll / Senior command / Rise to Chief of Naval Staff
caption_attribution_description: English: HMAS Australia
context_page_description: Vice Admiral Sir Alan Wedel Ramsay McNicoll, KBE, CB, GM was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy and a diplomat. Born in Melbourne, he entered the Royal Australian Naval College at the age of thirteen and graduated in 1926. Following training and staff appointments in Australia and the United Kingdom, he was attached to the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the Second World War. As torpedo officer of the 1st Submarine Flotilla in the Mediterranean theatre, McNicoll was decorated with the George Medal in 1941 for disarming enemy ordnance. He served aboard HMS King George V from 1942, sailing in support of several Arctic convoys and taking part in the Allied invasion of Sicily. McNicoll was posted for staff duties with the Admiralty from September 1943 and was involved in the planning of the Normandy landings. He returned to Australia in October 1944.
  McNicoll was made executive officer of HMAS Hobart in September 1945. Advanced to captain in 1949, he successively commanded HMAS Shoalhaven and HMAS Warramunga before being transferred to the Navy Office in July 1950.
context_section_description: McNicoll relinquished command of HMAS Australia in July 1954 before the cruiser was paid off and marked for disposal the following month, and he briefly returned to duties at the Navy Office. In November, he embarked for London to attend the Imperial Defence College as part of the 1955 course intake, which signified that he had been marked for senior command. McNicoll and his wife, Ruth, had separated in 1950 and their divorce, which cited adultery as the cause, was finalised in October 1956, while the former was still in London. On 17 May the following year, McNicoll wed Frances Mary Chadwick, a journalist, in the Hampstead register office. Made acting rear admiral in January 1957, McNicoll was appointed as Head of the Australian Joint Service Staff in London. He returned to Australia in February 1958 and was selected to serve as Deputy Secretary (Military) at the Department of Defence; McNicoll's rank was made substantive in July that year.
  On 8 January 1960, McNicoll was posted to the Naval Board in Canberra as Second Naval Member and Chief of Personnel. As noted by historian Ian Pfennigwerth, McNicoll held this position at a time in which recruitment and retention in the Navy particularly lagged behind targets. McNicoll was additionally appointed as a trustee of the RAN Relief Trust Fund during this period. Completing his term on the Naval Board, McNicoll was posted as Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet on 8 January 1962 and hoisted his standard aboard HMAS Melbourne, the flagship of the RAN. The Australian government had designated the role of the RAN to be primarily one of anti-submarine warfare, a posture which McNicoll thought unwise. McNicoll argued that surface and air weapons posed a threat equal to that of submarines toward vessels in modern naval warfare. As such, he campaigned for a contemporary aircraft carrier to replace that of HMAS Melbourne. The Army and Air Force opposed McNicoll's stance, and the government ultimately concluded that there was no strategic requirement for a new carrier in light of agreements contained in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In any event, McNicoll experienced a particularly demanding tenure as Fleet Commander since the RAN was in the process of a complete overhaul of its order of battle and, as a consequence, he had to manage the introduction and deployment into service of six Ton-class minesweepers acquired from the Royal Navy, along with the first batch of Westland Wessex helicopters and modernised afloat support capabilities. Furthermore, McNicoll was charged with the responsibility of ensuring Australian naval commitments to the Far East Strategic Reserve were met.
  McNicoll's two-year term as Fleet Commander concluded on 6 January 1964, at which point he returned to the Naval Board as Fourth Naval Member and Chief of Supply. However, this post proved short-lived with his appointment as Flag Officer-in-Charge East Australia Area, headquartered at the land base HMAS Kuttabul in Sydney, from June that year. In the 1965 New Year Honours, McNicoll was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
caption: The County-class cruiser, HMAS Australia. Captain Alan McNicoll served as Commanding Officer of Australia from 1952–54.
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