Rear Admiral Nigel Berlyn AO Royal Australian Navy

Nigel Berlyn was born in Plymouth on 26 August 1934 and educated at The Nautical College, Pangbourne before entering the RN in May 1952 as an engineer officer. He was promoted Lieutenant in Sep 1956 and Lieutenant Commander in 1964. He served on exchange with the RAN in 1964-65 a at the apprentice training establishment HMAS Nirimba in Sydney. In Nov 1965 he transferred to the RAN. His first RAN posting was as MEO of the destroyer HMAS Vampire during 1966-1967. During this time Vampire served in SE Asian waters including escort duties to Vietnam and off eastern Malaysia during Indonesian Confrontation. In late 1967, Berlyn was posted to the staff of the General Manager Garden Island Dockyard being promoted Commander that December. Berlyn served as MEO of the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in 1971-72. He then completed JSSC, Canberra, in 1973 and was posted, as an Acting Captain, as the Programming and Planning Manager in the New Destroyer Project Directorate. This project was to introduce the Light Destroyer (DDL) into the RAN but was cancelled in late 1973. He became the Director of the Guided Missile Frigate Acquisition Project. Berlyn was confirmed as a Captain in June 1975 and in early 1977 was posted to Fleet Headquarters as CSO (Technical). Berlyn was posted to Navy Office in Jan 1980 as the CSO Technical Services. Promoted Commodore in Dec 1980, he served at Williamstown Naval Dockyard in 1981-82 during a very difficult period when the lack of productivity at the dockyard was called into question several times in Parliament. Berlyn spent 1983 at the RCDS and upon return to Australia became General Manager of Garden Island Dockyard in January 1984. He was the last uniformed officer to hold this position before the dockyard was privatised. Promoted Rear Admiral in Sep 1984, he continued to serve as the General Manager. In August 1989 he proposed the introduction of random breath testing at the dockyard to curb excessive lunch time drinking by dockyard workers and reduce accident and injury rates. This met with stiff opposition  but became standard practice across Australian industry in later years. Berlyn retired from the RAN in 1990. He was a keen yachtsman and took part in many races after retirement.