G. Hermon Gill

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George Hermon Gill
Member of the Order of the British Empire
RelationsEsther Paterson (wife)

MBE, VD (8 March 1895 – 27 February 1973) was a Royal Australian Navy officer, mariner, journalist and naval historian who wrote the two volumes on the Royal Australian Navy in the official history series Australia in the War of 1939–1945
.

Biography

George Hermon Gill was born in

First World War with the Aberdeen Line, becoming a second officer, and ultimately receiving his master mariner's certificate in 1921.[1] While serving as second officer on the SS Miltiades, he met Esther Paterson, an artist, who was a passenger on the ship.[3]

Gill emigrated to Australia in 1922, and joined the staff of the Commonwealth Line in Melbourne. He married Paterson at her home in the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park on 2 June 1923. They had no children. He resigned his position with the Commonwealth Line in 1929, and took a holiday in England with Esther.[1] When they returned to Australia, he became a freelance journalist, writing a weekly column for the Melbourne Star and later The Argus.[3] He worked with the writer Frederick Howard on a film scenario entitled Fathful Journey based on Howard's novel The Emigrant. The scenario won a £250 prize in June 1939.[4][5]

On 1 August 1927, Gill joined the

Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1943 Birthday Honours.[7]

In 1944, with the war still raging, Gill was selected to write the naval volumes of the proposed official history of Australia in the War of 1939–1945. On 16 December 1944, he embarked on a six-month trip to Ceylon, Egypt, England and the United States to consult the records there before returning to Australia. He was demobilised on 14 November 1945, but remained a reservist, and was promoted to commander on 30 June 1947. He was transferred to the Retired List on 8 March 1953.[1][6]

After the war Gill became editor of the journal Navy, and, commencing in the early 1950s, the South Melbourne Record, an independent weekly suburban newspaper. He also wrote a history of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Three Decades, which was published in 1949. All the while, work continued on the two volumes of the official history, Royal Australian Navy 1939-1942 and Royal Australian Navy 1942-1945, which were published in 1957 and 1968 respectively.[1]

Gill died in East Melbourne on 27 February 1973, and his remains were cremated.[1]

Notes

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    .
  2. ^ "Obituary Mr. William Hermon Gill". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 28, 682. Victoria, Australia. 27 July 1938. p. 11. Retrieved 14 October 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ a b "George H. Gill interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection". Digital Collection - National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  4. The Australasian
    . Vol. CXLVI, no. 4, 720. Victoria, Australia. 24 June 1939. p. 44. Retrieved 14 October 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Film Scenario Results". The News. Vol. XXIV, no. 3, 628. South Australia. 7 March 1935. p. 1. Retrieved 14 October 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ a b "Gill George Hermon : Date of birth - 08 Mar 1895 : Place of birth - London : Place of enlistment - Port Melbourne : Next of Kin - Gill Esther". Discovering Anzacs. National Archives of Australia and Archives NZ. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  7. ^ "No. 36033". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 28 May 1943. p. 2455.
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