John Augustine Collins

Vice-Admiral Sir John Augustine Collins, (7 January 1899 – 3 September 1989) was a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) officer who served in both World Wars, and who eventually rose to become a vice admiral and Chief of Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During the Second World War, he commanded the cruiser in the Mediterranean campaign. He led the Australian Naval Squadron in the Pacific theatre and was wounded in the first recorded kamikaze attack, in 1944.

Early life and education John Augustine Collins was born in Deloraine, Tasmania, to an English (Anglican) mother and an Irish (Catholic) father in 1899. His father died seven months before he was born, on 31 May, 1898, and the family soon after moved to St Kilda, in Victoria. In 1913, at age 14, Collins joined the first intake to the RAN College.

Relations between the RAN and British Royal Navy were close at the time, with frequent exchanges of officers between the two and in June 1941, Collins was transferred to Singapore, as Assistant Chief of Staff to the British Naval Commander in Chief, China Station, Vice Admiral Geoffrey Layton. and was later made a Commander of the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau.

Collins was then appointed Senior Naval Officer, Western Australia, based at Fremantle. He later served as Australia's High Commissioner to New Zealand (1956–1962).