RANC athletics trophy awarded to Lindsay Gellatly
Date1925
Object number00014629
NameTrophy
MediumSilver/silver plate
DimensionsOverall: 120 x 87 x 54 x 54 mm, 0.15 kg
ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Jeremy Wallis
DescriptionAn athletics trophy awarded to Lindsay Gellatly by the Royal Australian Naval college in 1925 as a third place prize.
Gellatly went on from the college to have a long and distinguished career in the Royal Australian Navy, over 30 years of continued service.
HistoryCaptain Lindsay Gellatly was born in 1908 and became a cadet in 1922 at the RAN College in Sydney, winning this athletic trophy there in 1925.
Throughout his naval career he served on various vessels and in 1943, as Lieutenant Commander, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) award "For fortitude and sustained devotion to duty in Mediterranean, mentioned in dispatches". (Couior Mail, 24 May 1943).
In 1954 Gellatly was awarded an O.B.E as a Commander in the RAN for "Outstanding efforts and devotion to duty whilst commanding HMAS COMMONWEALTH". On his retirement in 1955, he became an Honoaray Aide-de-Camp to the Govenor General (Sir William Joseph Slim), a position he held until 1958.
After his naval career ended, Lindsay Gellatly and his wife Dorothy, moved to farming on a family property at Lower Portland near the Colo and Hawkesbury Rivers. They converted the farm from traditional vegetable growing into a citrus farm which is still opertaing today as Colo River Citrus.SignificanceThe value of this personal collection lies in the 30 year period it covers. The papers and associated objects such as this trophy show Gellatly's career from enlistment to retirement, his appointments and service with the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy. His career typifies the movements and appointments of a naval oficer and the changes of life in the navy during the Second World War.
