Navy Accepts Personal Effects of Late Admiral Dawson

Southern Naval Command received the personal effects of the late Admiral Oscar Stanley Dawson in deference to his wishes that the items be handed over to the Indian Navy after his death. The late Admiral who passed away in October in 2011 at Bengaluru had willed that his personal effects be handed over to the Indian Navy, the service, which he served with distinction for over four decades.

 

The items were accepted by Captain GS Oberoi, Commanding Officer of INS Dronacharya from Commander VK Janardhanan, Station Commander of Navy at Bengaluru. The items  accepted were as follows:-

 

 

Commander Janardhanan revealed that the third pistol gifted to the late Admiral Dawson by Admiral Gorshkov of former USSR will be handed over to INS Vikramaditya (Ex-Russian Navy Ship Admiral Gorshkov) on its arrival in India. Captain Oberoi said that the personal effects of the former Navy Chief would be displayed in the Naval Maritime Museum at Fort Kochi.

 

It was during Admiral Dawson’s tenure as the Flag Officer Commanding in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, at Kochi from March 1979 to February 1982, that the site for the future Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala was identified. 

 

The Admiral was Director of Naval Operations during the Indo-Pakistan conflict in 1971, when he conceived the daring attack on Karachi by Indian Naval Missile boats. During the latter half of his tenure as Navy Chief, Admiral Dawson was also Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). Post retirement, Admiral Dawson was appointed as the High Commissioner of India to New Zealand.