January 20, 2024
Peter Jones and Guy Knox, Wilcannia News
Vice Admiral Ian Knox died in Sydney on 14 January after a long illness. Ian Warren Knox was born in Wilcannia on the Darling River in western NSW on 9 February 1933 to Robert and Kathleen Knox née Miell. His father ran ‘Knox and Downs’, the local General Store. His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Albert Miell was a Boar War veteran and was Commanding Officer of the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment and died in action during the Gallipoli campaign on Walker’s Ridge.
Ian Knox initially attended the Wilcannia Primary School and when he was eleven he boarded at his father’s old school, Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. At the school Ian was cox of the rowing ‘clinker fours’ and captain of the Under-14 tennis team. It was during that time he became fascinated with the navy and the Battle of the Coral Sea. He also met Margaret ‘Margie’ Lewis, his future wife, who was a daughter of family friends.
In 1947 he joined the Royal Australian Naval College which was then located at HMAS Cerberus. Like most country boys Ian enjoyed sport and was a particularly good tennis player. As a young officer Ian would win the RAN men’s singles championship. Ian later recalled he got “a lot of belting around” at the Naval College and it was “not a nice place to be.” The 1947 Entry was notable with Michael Hudson (later Admiral), David Martin (later Rear Admiral and Governor of New South Wales) and Eric Johnson (later Commodore and Northern Territory Administrator) among their number. Ian’s Entry resolved not to perpetuate the treatment they endured when they became the senior class. For his part, in direct contrast to those early experiences, Ian would go on to cultivate a calm leadership style and strive for professional excellence.
After graduating from the Naval College in October 1950 Ian Knox and his class undertook professional training at sea and ashore in the UK. He earned maximum time gained towards promotion to lieutenant from his results from shore training and in the training cruiser, as well as winning an engineering prize. His early sea service was in the corvette HMAS Cootamundra and the destroyers HMS Jutland and HMAS Tobruk, the latter of which served in Far East Strategic Reserve.
In 1956 Ian Knox married Margie in Adelaide. Margie was ebullient by nature and their contrasting characters made for a happy lifelong partnership. The following year he undertook specialist training in Torpedo and Anti-Submarine Warfare (TAS) in the UK. Ian was awarded the Ogilvy Medal for being Dux of the Commonwealth Long TAS Course.
Throughout 1960-63 Ian Knox was the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Project Officer at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory in Melbourne during the development of the Ikara ASW Guided Missile System. He then was the commissioning TAS officer in the frigate HMAS Stuart which was the first ship to be fitted with this new weapon.
In 1966 Ian Knox was posted as Executive Officer of guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth just as it was completing the refit which fitted Ikara to the ship. Perth was under the command of Captain Peter Doyle who Ian said was “a hard bugger to work for.” They were to be an effective team especially when Perth undertook her first deployment to Vietnam in 1967-68. On her first patrol Perth was hit by a shell near her aft 5-inch gun mount and sustained minor damage with four sailors being wounded. In all over 300 rounds would be fired at Perth during her patrols off the Vietnamese coast.
In 1968 Ian Knox was promoted Commander and appointed Director of Underwater Weapons in Navy Office. This was the first of a number of postings to Canberra in either Navy or Defence positions. Ian’s keen intellect, engaging personality and broad experience well suited him for work in Canberra.
In 1971 Ian Knox was appointed as the commissioning Commanding Officer of the destroyer escort HMAS Torrens. Her launching was the first nationally televised coverage of a launching of an RAN ship. After a successful commission that included participation in Exercise RIMPAC 72 off Hawaii, Ian attended the United States Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. On completion, he was promoted Captain and given command of the guided missile destroyer, HMAS Hobart.
In 1975 Ian Knox was posted to the Strategic and International Policy Division of the Department of Defence and was the Defence member of the Australian delegation to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth sessions of the United Nation Law of the Sea Conference in Geneva and New York. In that year he also became one of the founding members of the Australian Naval Institute and wrote about the impact of the Law of the Sea to the Navy in its Journal. In 1976 Ian’s son Guy joined the Naval College and would go on to become a helicopter pilot.
Clearly destined for flag rank, Ian Knox attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1979 before being promoted Commodore and assuming command of the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. Arriving in Pearl Harbor for RIMPAC 80, Ian impressed all by expertly backing the aircraft carrier into her assigned berth. In the same year Melbourne, wearing the flag of Rear Admiral Peter Doyle, undertook an Indian Ocean deployment in company with Perth, Stalwart, Supply, Derwent and Otama. It was to prove the last deployment with Skyhawk fighters after two were lost in October and the ship’s sole ageing steam catapult struggling to cope with jet aircraft. Despite this, Melbourne was an otherwise happy and efficient ship. Ian was highly regarded as a commanding officer for his competence and even tempered disposition.
In February 1981, Ian Knox was posted as the Director-General Naval Plans and Policy in Canberra. The following year he was promoted Rear Admiral and appointed Chief of Naval Operational Requirements and Plans. In that position he was a strong supporter, at a critical time, for the Winnin Project which would develop the Nulka off-board missile decoy now fitted to RAN and US warships. He argued that the RAN “was a small ship navy and could not afford to lose a single ship.” He also played a critical role in committee supporting the more expensive Seahawk helicopter over the cheaper but less capable Lynx. After two years he became Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and then assumed Command of the Fleet in May 1985. It was a particularly busy time in Defence reorganisation as the role expanded to become Maritime Commander Australia.
In January 1987 Ian Knox returned to Canberra as Assistant Chief of Defence Force (Policy). He was promoted Vice Admiral in July 1987 and became Vice Chief of the Defence Force. He served under the CDF General Peter Gration who Ian found very good to work for. In this role Ian Knox’s approachability, balanced appreciation of issues and political astuteness were real assets to him and contributed to his effectiveness in the position. On retiring from the RAN in September 1989 Ian Knox served on the boards of Australia Sonar Systems, Oceanic Capital Corporation and Thompson-CSF Pacific. He was also a member of the NSW Legal Services Disciplinary Tribunal. Ian joined Sydney Legacy in 2000 and was a legatee in the Mosman/Lane Cove Division.
Back in 1980 Ian Knox, along with retired Navy colleagues Commander Geoff Furlong, who had been Ian’s Executive Officer in Torrens, and Commodore ‘Rocker’ Robertson bought a 4000 acre sheep property on the Namoi River north of Manilla, NSW. Although Geoff lived there full time in the homestead, Ian and Margie, as well as Rocker had their own cottages on the river bank. For the next twenty years they hosted many of their family and Navy friends to parties and celebrations, including their 25th wedding anniversary.
In 1988 Ian Knox obtained a pilot’s licence following training at Canberra Aero Club. The following year he bought a Beechcraft Bonanza and subsequently gained both his night and instrument ratings. For the next ten years, he and Margie spent hundreds of hours exploring Australia by air. In 2011 his grandson, Roy Knox, kept the family tradition alive and joined the Naval College. He is serving as an Aerospace Engineer in the Fleet Air Arm.
Ian Knox was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 1985 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and elevated to Companion of the Order (AC) in 1989. He regularly returned to Wilcannia during his retirement and in 2016 attended its annual Field Fun Day, as one of its famous sons.
Ian Knox is survived by his children Guy, Nicola, Sam, his grandchildren Tom, Merri, James, Roy, Will, Lucy, Emma, Harry and his great grandchildren India, George and Edmund.
The authors wish to thank Rear Admiral David Campbell, Commodore Jack McCaffrie, John Mortimer and Graeme Lunn for their assistance in preparing this obituary.
This article appeared in Wilcannia News, March 2024.
