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           Captain Shoulder board



Capt. Henry Leslie Howden, OBE, RAN
28 August 1939 – 8 June 1942
CBE 3 December 1940

Capt. Henry Arthur Showers, RAN
8 June 1942 - ??? HMAS Hobart was in Dockyard Control during repairs

Capt. Roy Russell Dowling, RAN
November 1944 – still in command in October 1945 according to the Navy List


This extract is from notes by Dr. Patrick Ffyske Howden (Captain Howden’s son). When war came in 1914 he prevailed on his father to let him go to England by sailing-ship around Cape Horn. He was accepted as midshipman, Royal Naval Reserve, a few days after reaching Scotland. His first sea appointment was to a minesweeper. Thence he went to the 10th Cruiser Squadron, patrolling the North Sea between Iceland and the Norwegian coast. In 1916 he transferred to the RAN.

While in HMS Benhow, with the First Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet stationed at Scapa Flow, Howden passed his examinations for sub-lieutenant in the Permanent Naval Forces of the Australian Commonwealth.

Early in 1918 he went to HMAS Sydney, then on duty with the Second Cruiser Squadron, and came to Australia in her in 1919. On May 5 he was promoted lieutenant. The day following his 23rd birthday he was given his first command: the old gunboat HMAS Protector 'with more guns than a cruiser.' He took her in to Hann’s Inlet to berth alongside Flinders Naval Depot, the first ship of war ever to do so.

Howden remained at Flinders for some time, standing by while the Depot was being built and before it was commissioned. For a time the Commander was ill and Howden took over. He was the Executive Officer when Flinders commissioned and the first President of the Wardroom Mess. Destroyer command came at the age of 25, with HMAS Huon, one of the new Australian-built destroyers of the wartime program.

In 1924, after a course in England, Howden took command of HMAS Tasmania, an S-Class destroyer. In 1927 he went to Japan to study the language. He had passed his interpreter examinations, but he now lived among the Japanese for practice in the common speech and to study the customs. He wore Japanese clothes and took a Japanese name. He also spent some time in China and saw something of the civil wars in 1927. He gained his half-stripe that year.

His next sea-going appointment was to the newly built Australia, which he joined in England on her first commission. Eighteen months later he went again to China, to command HMS Mantis, a gunboat on the Yangtze Kiang River. Here he married Londoner Vanda Fiske, who travelled aboard for her security.

Among other alarms and excursions, he rescued Irish and Spanish missionaries from bandits. For services on the China Station. Howden was made an Officer of the British Empire, and at 4 years seniority as a lieutenant commander he was promoted Commander.

Howden returned to Australia in 1932. After a short appointment as commander in the seaplane tender Albatross, he went to England and brought back Vampire, already a veteran though still far from her fame as a member of the 'scrap-iron flotilla.' The day after his arrival in Sydney, Howden was appointed to the flagship, Canberra plus a short term of duty at Flinders Naval Depot thence to the Admiralty, where he was set in charge of an Intelligence Section. It covered a mixed bag; Rumania, Bulgaria, the Baltic States, India, Burma and Assam. He was the Australian naval representative in Westminster Abbey for the coronation of King George VI. He also represented the RAN at the unveiling of the Australian War Memorial at Viliers Bretonneux.

Howden was promoted Captain on June 30, 1938. Towards the end of the year he came back to Australia to command the sloop Yarra. Just before the outbreak of war he became captain of Hobart. He was at sea when war was declared and under his command Hobart did notable service in the Red Sea, especially during the British evacuation of Somaliland.

On December 9, 1941, he took Hobart to Singapore. During the critical days of the Battle of Java he commanded the Western Striking Force of three cruisers and two destroyers.

Hobart left Java on February 28 1942, and took 1,000 civilians from Padang in Sumatra. Howden then sent in his destroyers to bring off other escapees. Hobart went to Ceylon and then home to Australia escorting a convoy with Australian troops from the Middle East.

After one week in Sydney, Hobart sailed again to battle in the Coral Sea. After the action of May 5 during which she bagged 3 Jap bombers, Hobart returned to Sydney. Howden was brought ashore to travel Australia, interviewing and selecting candidates for the new Officers 1 Training School.
These recruits were amiably known as 'Howden's Hussars'. In 1943, he went to Flinders Naval Depot as Captain Superintendent of Training and in February 1944 he was appointed Commanding Officer of HMAS Penguin, Balmoral Naval Establishment.

Between the departure of Rear-Admiral Muirhead-Gould and the arrival of Rear-Admiral George Moore, Captain Howden acted as Naval Officer-in-charge, Sydney. Post war he was to divorce, act as ADC to King George VI, be in charge of West Australian Navy and travel extensively to Europe - usually gratis in ships under command of his ex-officers, at least once even in an aircraft carriers Admiral's Quarters!

(Ref: The Royal Australian Navy, Naval men who have Served Australia.)