Pair of shoulder titles: Lieutenant Commander R I Peek, Victory Contingent 1946

Pair of rectangular woven white 'AUSTRALIA' titles on a dark blue ground. Worn during the Victory Contingent march in London, 6 Jume 1946.

Born in Tamworth, New South Wales in 1914 Richard Innes ‘Peter’ Peek entered the Royal Australian Navy as a cadet midshipman in 1928. After training at the naval college he was appointed a midshipman in May 1932 and undertook his first seagoing service in HMAS Canberra. In 1933 he transferred to England to train with the Royal Navy, first in the Mediterranean in HM ships Royal Sovereign and Active and then at Portsmouth, where he undertook specialised training in gunnery at Wale Island. He returned to HMAS Canberra in 1937 before undertaking further training courses in London at the Royal Naval College Greenwich.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War Peek was posted a gunnery officer to the British battleship Revenge, in July 1939. The ship was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia as part of the North Atlantic Escort Force. He returned to Australia at the end of the year and was posted to the gunnery school at HMAS Cerberus before joining HMAS Hobart in May 1941. Hobart undertook operations in the Mediterranean until the end of the year, including bombardments of Tobruk and Bardia and operations off Cyprus, Malta, Syria and Crete. The ship returned to Malayan waters in January 1942 where it endured severe Japanese bombing attacks. Hobart berthed at Singapore on 1 February but left the following day after taking on ammunition. On 3 February she rescued survivors from the Dutch merchant ship Norah Moller. On 25 February at Tandjong Priok Hobart was attacked by 27 Japanese bombers while refuelling, and as a result did not take part in the Battle of the Java Sea.

Hobart took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, shooting down three enemy aircraft. Peek was posted to HMAS Penguin in Sydney in June 1943 before joining HMAS Australia in September. He was promoted lieutenant commander in February 1944 and appointed squadron gunnery officer of TF74 later in the year. On 21 October 1944, while supporting US landings at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines HMAS Australia was struck by a Japanese Navy Aichi Type dive bomber impacting the ship’s bridge and enveloping it in a fireball. Thirty officers and ratings were killed or died of wounds. Peek suffered burns to his face, hands and back and a blown eardrum. Given the opportunity to be evacuated to an American hospital ship he elected to remain in the Australia.

In January 1945 HMAS Australia supported the US landings on Luzon Island in Lingayen Gulf and sustained an estimated further 100 casualties when it was attacked by five Japanese suicide aircraft in four days. Damaged and lacking essential crew the ship was forced to return to Sydney. It was Peek’s final operation of the war.
On 27 March Peek was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military) for his ‘skill, determination and courage’ during the action in Leyte Gulf. In May he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his conduction during operations at Lingayen Gulf ‘for gallantry, skill and devotion to duty’.

In 1946 Peek led the RAN’s contingent to the victory celebrations in London to mark the end of the war. Members of all three services taking part in the Victory Contingent wore 'AUSTRALIA' shoulder titles on their uniforms. Photographic evidence in the case of the navy suggests that the titles may only have been worn consistently in London in the days immediately before and after the march on 6 June. Only some of the men who were later given a tour of Berlin, which was comprehensively photographed, can be seen wearing them, while members of the RAAF and army contingents appear always to have worn them while in Europe.

Peek remained in England on attachment to the Royal Navy until the end of 1947. He later commanded HMAS Tobruk during the Korean War, and again in the Far Eastern Strategic Reserve, and later the aircraft carriers Sydney and Melbourne in the 1960s. He was appointed Chief of Naval staff, with the rank of vice admiral in 1970, and retired in 1973.