THE ADMIRAL OF ELWOOD

 

As a child, Richard Stanley Veale saw ships sailing off to the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion and was inspired to join the Navy at the tender age of 15, sleeping in hammocks below deck of the original Cerberus.  During World War One, midshipman Veale was a member of an expeditionary force that seized an enemy wireless station in German New Guinea.  In 1939, he was re-mobilized to serve as commanding officer of HMAS Cerberus III on Port Phillip Bay.  Commander Veale made history at 1.50 a.m. on September 4^th, when he fired across the bow of the Woniora, a German merchant vessel that failed to respond to signals.  This was Australia’s first ‘shot’ in World War Two.  He was decommissioned in 1950 after 44 years of outstanding service and was awarded a knighthood by the Queen.  In retirement, he took on many active public roles.  As the last surviving crew member, he took an active interest in the campaign by the Sandringham Council to resurrect the Cerberus, once the flagship of the Victorian Navy in 1871.  The ship is now a breakwater rusting offshore of Black Rock.  Nicknamed the ‘Admiral’ or ‘Duke of Elwood’, Sir Veale died at home where he lived with his wife at 7 Joyce Street Elwood, on 29 July 1987 at the age of 93 years.