Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Captain David John Hamer DSC AM
Born in Melbourne, he was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then the Royal Australian Naval College. He served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1940 to 1968. He was a lieutenant aboard HMAS Australia during the battles of Leyte in October 1944 and Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. During this time he served as the Australia's Air Defence Officer.[1]

In the rank of acting captain, he was an honorary aide-de-camp to the governor-general, and director of naval intelligence 1961 from 1963, and after confirmation in the rank of captain, he served as captain of HMAS Vampire and captain of the Australian Destroyer Squadron 1963–65. Then after serving as director of project coordination in Navy Office, he resigned from the RAN in 1968.

Extract (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hamer)

Captain David John Hamer

Between January 1937 and December 1940, David Hamer was enrolled at the Royal Australian Naval College, located at the Victorian Navy base, HMAS Cerberus. He was then posted for a year to the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, patrolling the Indian Ocean. From November 1941 to 1943 Hamer was posted to the Mediterranean Ocean with the destroyer HMAS Napier, the Indian Ocean with HMAS Revenge and attended training courses in England. Hamer was then posted to HMAS Norman in January 1943 and in August that year was promoted to lieutenant. In May 1944 he transferred to the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia as the ship’s Air Defence Officer and remained there until August 1945. During his time on HMAS Australia Hamer was awarded ithe Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for gallantry during assault operations in the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. Hamer was in England on a long gunnery course when the Second World War ended, and remained an officer in the Navy until his resignation on 1 February 1968.

Courtesy of (https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/MembersWWII)