HMAS ADELAIDE (I)

Date1922-1946

Object number00054682

NameShip badge

MediumResin

DimensionsOverall: 160 mm

ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts

Terms

DescriptionHMAS ADELAIDE (I) was a Royal Australian Navy light cruiser commissioned at Sydney on 5 August 1922 and decommissioned 13 May 1946. The badge features the coat of arms of Adelaide. Collected by RAN officer William Frank Cook.SignificanceThis badge is associated with HMAS Adelaide (I), a Modified Town Class cruiser built for the Royal Australian Navy during the First World War. Adelaide served as one of the RAN's capital ships during the 1920s and 1930s, and served in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during the Second World War. The badge is also directly associated with William Cook, who assumed command of HMAS Nizam in February 1945 and become the youngest Australian naval officer to command a destoyer during the Second World War. He would also serve as First Lieutenant aboard HMAS Wyatt Earp, the first Australian naval vessel to participate in an Antarctic research expedition (the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) in the immediate post-war period.