Missing Pieces: - Royal Australian Navy

seTTing The scene - The Ran and iTs inTelligence diVisiOn TO 1939
Captain Walter ‘Hugh’ Thring, RAN, 1920
However, after the retirement of Thring at the end of WWI, naval intelligence went
into decline: it was poorly manned and received little support from the Naval Board.
The Sigint network was disbanded, and the title ‘Intelligence’ was removed from the
Naval Staff List in 1921. The Admiralty noted the paucity of information on the Pacific
arriving from RAN sources and offered the services of an experienced intelligence
professional to bring some form and order to the matter. 30 This offer was accepted,
and on 29 January 1921 Lieutenant Colonel Francis Griffiths of the Royal Marines
arrived in Australia to take up duties as the ‘Imperial Liaison Intelligence Officer’.
On 14 January 1922, Griffiths’ title was changed to Director of Naval Intelligence.
He established a Naval Intelligence Centre in Sydney, remote from Navy Office in
Melbourne but close to the fleet and in the nation’s busiest port. This was to remain
the centre of RAN intelligence activities for the next 15 years. The DNI in 1923 said
that ‘Sydney is ‘a model example’ of a district intelligence centre’, and noted that the
District Intelligence Officer Sydney was investigating possible Communist cells in
HMA Ships and establishments. 31
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