Hello All.
I am informed by the Navy Bereavement Office that John’s funeral will be held at
10.00 Friday 10th February at the France Family Funeral Chapel, 45 Stockton Street, Nelson Bay, NSWThe RSL will be providing the Australian White Ensign as a coffin pall. It has been authorised for this use by the Chief of Navy.
Attached is an Obituary/ Service biography written by Commander Tony Vine.
John died in Nelson Bay, not Melbourne, as previously advised.
Regards,
Keith Gascoine
20 Stockyard Court
Tallebudgera QLD 4228
Australia
04 1118-2419 (local)
+61 4 1118-2419 (international)
COMMANDER JOHN GRAHAM O’NEILL OAM RAN (RTD)John (JG) O’Neill was born in North Kensington South Australia on the 9th of October 1941 and he was educated at the Cavendish Road High School in Brisbane before he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy for twelve years as a Naval Apprentice on the 4th of January 1957. He was a member of the second intake of apprentices into HMAS Nirimba and after his initial six months training, he was rated as an Engine Room Artificer Apprentice (Fitter and Turner).
Nirimba was to be John’s home for the next four years and after he graduated in December 1960, he posted to the frigate HMAS Queenborough as an ERA 5th Class to commence the sea phase of his training. He would remain in Queenborough until March 1963 when the ship went into reserve at Williamstown Dockyard. Queenborough made annual South East Asian deployments on each of the three years John served on her. He was promoted to ERA 4th class (Petty Officer) in November 1962.
On leaving Queenborough John posted to the former aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney until in late 1963 he volunteered for and was selected to undertake submarine training in the United Kingdom. He undertook his initial training at HMS Dolphin before completing the sea phase of his training on HMS Cachalot and being awarded his submarine qualification. He was promoted to ERA 1st Class (CPO) in November 1964 and he was awarded his Marine Engineering Charge Certificate in March 1967, all whilst serving in the UK. In June 1967 he was commissioned as a Special Duties Marine Engineering Sub-Lieutenant.
Throughout the remainder of 1967 and in 1968, John completed his post commissioning courses and the submarine technical officers’ training course in the UK before finally returning to Australia in late 1968 after an absence of five years. Within weeks he was back at sea in HMAS Sydney where he would serve for twelve months, during which time the ship made three trips to Vietnam. On the 20th of April 1970 he assumed the duties of the Marine Engineering Officer of HMAS Ovens, then under the command of the late LCDR, later Captain, Barry Nobes RAN. John’s posting to Ovens was clearly a successful one as he was allowed to transfer to the General List of Officers and was posted to the staff of the General Overseer and Superintendent of Inspection in Sydney as an acting Lieutenant Commander. He was confirmed in rank in June 1977 before returning to the UK on the staff of the Australian Naval Representative United Kingdom in September of that year.
John returned to Australia in 1979 to HMAS Platypus and he was promoted to Commander in December 1979. I had the pleasure of having him chair both my CPOMTP’s promotion board and later my Marine Engineering Charge Certificate board and found him to be a fair but thorough examiner. The completion of this posting would see John return to sea as the Commander Engineer of the fleet oiler HMAS Supply under the command of his fellow submariner Captain, Later Vice Admiral Ian MacDougal, RAN.
In June 1982 John’s career had travelled full circle when he posted back to his alma mater, the navy’s apprentice school HMAS Nirimba. By the middle of the decade he had resigned from the RAN and had entered the civilian workforce.
His discharge would not see the end of his contribution to the RAN and indeed to the submarine service. He was the first Integrated Logistic Support Manager for the Australian Submarine Corporation, and it was largely through his efforts that the COLLINS’ class submarine became to first RAN unit to be fully supported by computerised logistic systems. He argued that the Apple system should be adopted over IBM as he recognised it was more sailor friendly and it would significantly reduce training time and be more readily accepted.
Later in life John was the Managing Director of Mercadier Consulting Pty Ltd who managed the design and installation of the flight deck landing aids on the LPAs HMAS Manoora and Kanimbla during their reconstruction in Newcastle in the late 1990s. At the time I was the Engineer Officer of Manoora, and John and I had to work closely together on the final acceptance of the equipment into service. The work was always done in good humour, sometimes late at night, but followed by a beer and a warm handshake. He later worked for the Department of Defence for almost five years on Project SEA 1442 – Maritime Communications Project.
John’s interests were varied, in 2013 he became an author, publishing a novel, Kafira, a story full of “tragedy, unrequited love, international suspense and driving ambition to defeat the grab for world domination”. For many years he was active as a volunteer and fundraiser and he was recognised in the 2010 Australia Day’s Honours List with the award of the Order of Australia Medal for “For service to the community through a range of youth and service organisations, and to Technical Aid to the Disabled ACT”.
Commander John Graham O’Neill OAM RAN (Rtd) passed away in Melbourne on the 30th of January 2023, he was 81 years old.
Vale John O’Neil – Pioneer naval apprentice, submariner, engineer, visionary, author and advocate for the disabled.
Tony Vine
31 January 2023.
Photo Credit: Mercadier Publishing
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Yes, BC, it is always sad to learn of the passing of one of our early 'Pioneers'... 
Thankyou for your service, 
rest on your oars, John, your journey is done... 
R.I.P. 
