Commodore B.G. Gibbs AM

The RAN and the broader ex-Navy community are saddened to hear of the passing of CDRE Brian Gibbs on 26 December 2012.

CDRE Gibbs joined the RAN on 10 July 1951. After 4 years of basic training and sea familiarisation in both the RAN and RN, his early postings as a junior Supply Officer included HMA Ships Sydney, Melbourne, Creswell, Penguin and Parramatta. During a 2 year exchange with the RN in HMS Terror (Singapore), he was promoted to LCDR and was selected by the Naval Board to study law on a full time basis on his return to Sydney in 1965. To his great credit, he was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of NSW in 1968 and was also admitted to practice in both the Supreme Court of the ACT and the High Court of Australia.
He returned to sea as the Supply Officer in HMAS Perth during her deployment to Vietnam and then briefly also in the troop ship HMAS Sydney. Coming ashore as a CMDR in 1970, he spent 2 years in Navy Office where he helped to develop a common code of discipline for all 3 Services.
In early 1972, he was posted to duty with the Chief Naval Judge Advocate of the RN at Greenwich Naval College and then as the Supply Officer of the training establishment, HMS Pembroke in Chatham UK.
His considerable efforts were rewarded when, upon his return to Australia in 1974, he was appointed as Deputy Director of Naval Legal Services. Upon promotion to CAPT in 1975 he became the Director of Naval Legal Services and, in recognition of his services to the RAN in this role, he was awarded an AM in 1979. He was promoted to CDRE in December 1980 whereupon he assumed command of HMAS Cerberus until May 1982. His final appointment was as the Director General of Naval Manpower (DGNM) until his retirement in July 1984.

In retirement, CDRE Gibbs continued to play an important role in the support of ex-Navy personnel and associations in Victoria through his membership of the Veterans Review Board and then also as a long-standing President and Trustee of the Melbourne Naval Centre until November 2011.