 |
John Tracy Richardson
Lieutenant Commander
-
Date of Entry 8-5-1888
-
Sub-Lieutenant 8-5-1888
-
Lieutenant 25-3-1889
-
Long Course in Gunnery and Torpedo on H.M. Ships Excellent and Vernon 1893.
-
Special certificate for Ordnance, Woolwich 1893.
-
Served as Lieutenant in HMS Swiftsure during Manoeuvres, 1893.
-
Torpedo Lieutenant, 5th November, 1898.
Victorian Naval List, 1-7-1899
Lieut. Richardson's signature from the Cerberus Logbook 24 May 1902,
surprisingly still using V.N. for Victorian Navy.
Photo from The Weekly Times, 14 July 1900
courtesy of "Newspaper Collection", State Library of Victoria.
|
Lieut J. T. Richardson,
V.N.
Lieutenant Richardson's hatbox is on display at Nepean Historical Society, Sorrento.
Photographed courtesy of the Nepean Historical Society & the donor, Des Young.
"On Friday his (Lieut. Richardson) instructions were simply to find the Cerberus, & in order that he might locate her before nightfall he established a signalling station on Mud Island, by means of which he could command the Bay from Swan to Mud Island, & thence right across to Mount Martha. The Countess herself lay at the entrance to the West Channel, & sighting the Gordon, which was sent out to scout, traced her back to the Cerberus. According to Lieut. Richardson, therefore, the Gordon gave away her ally." The Age, 11 April 1898
Mentioned in the Victorian Government Gazette dated 27 July 1900 as being placed temporarily in command of the Naval Forces of Victoria.
John Richardson was born in 1862 and was commissioned in the Victorian Navy (Australian Colony) as a Sub-Lieutenant in 1888 and ten months later was promoted to Lieutenant. In the 1890s he completed specialist training in gunnery and torpedo with the Royal Navy and served on HMS Swiftsure. He was appointed Acting Naval Commandant of the Victorian Navy in 1900 and promoted to Commander in 1901.
After a period on the unattached list 1902-6, he was appointed to the position of Acting Naval Commander Queensland, in the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF). He was in this position when he wrote the report published in this volume, although his formal promotion to the rank of Captain and posting to Naval Commander Queensland was backdated to July 1909. He served as District Naval Officer Melbourne throughout World War I and retired in 1920.
Australian Maritime Issues 2009
Defence of Trade Routes by J. T. Richardson
First Australian Naval Action in the First World War.
It would appear that the first Australian naval action in the First World War was undertaken by the ex-Victorian torpedo boat, The Countess of Hopetoun, and the ex-Victorian Naval officer, Lieutenant John Tracy Richardson (a Captain from 1909).
On approaching Port Phillip on the 11th of August, the two year old German cargo ship, SS Hobart took on a pilot, Captain Eastman, unaware that Britain had declared war against Germany just seven days earlier. On entering the South Channel, the Hobart's Captain Paulsen was informed that he needed to slow down. On being told that war had been declared, Captain Paulsen rushed for the wheel in an attempt to escape to sea. The pilot pointed out that the The Countess of Hopetoun, was alongside with her torpedo tubes fully loaded. Captain Paulsen did not resist any further.
Captain John Tracy Richardson RAN, either boarded with the pilot wearing civilian clothes over his naval uniform, or from The Countess of Hopetoun. After allowing Hobart's captain and crew the run of the ship, Richardson hid in the captain's cabin. When two crew members sneaked into the cabin after dark to retrieve code books, Captain Richardson with torch in one hand and pistol in the other, seized the books. These code books allowed communication between German merchant ships and German warships. These, the only German codebooks then in allied hands, allowed the reading of German naval radio messages and contributed to victory in the Battle of the Falklands.
This Australian naval action preceded the taking of German New Guinea by an Australian naval force by one month.
The Countess of Hopetoun continued to serve at the entrance to Port Phillip throughout the war. Her last war duty appears to be in late November 1918 when she enforced the quarantine of a transport full of returning soldiers who objected to proceeding to the Quarantine Station at Portsea. Lieutenant Richardson's cocked hat box is held by the Nepean Historical Society in Sorrento.
Death of Captain Richardson
Veteran Naval Officer
Captain John Tracy Richardson, who captured a German merchant ship during the last war, securing a secret German code, has died at Manly, aged 81. Captain Richardson was District Naval Officer in Victoria when he boarded a German vessel off Port Phillip Heads in the early months of the last war. He bluffed the Germans into believing, that he was a quarantine officer, and the ship was brought under the land guns. Captain Richardson, believing that the German captain had not destroyed his secret codes, gave him more freedom than usual, and watched him until he slid back a panel, behind which the secret papers were hidden.
Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 1941 | 