Lieutenant-Commander George Alfred Johns, V.R.D., was born in Merewether, N.S.W. in March 1909 and was appointed a Temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (Seagoing) in November 1939. Posted to the Survey Vessel H.M.A.S. Moresby as an Assistant Surveyor in January of the following year, he received his own command in February 1943, when appointed Captain of the Ocean Minesweeper and Corvette Cootamundra. In her, towards the end of his period in command, he would have served off New Guinea and the Halmahera Islands. Johns was next posted as a Staff Officer to the Kuttabul in late 1944, became C.O. of the R.A.N. Auxiliary Ship Wilcannia in July 1945 and finished the War at the R.A.N. Headquarters, Garden Island (a.k.a. Rushcutter). A Master Mariner by profession, he retained his links with the R.A.N.V.R. after hostilities and was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in December 1947. Awarded the V.R.D. in 1958, Johns was placed on the Retired List in March 1967.