Commander Eric Augustas Feldt OBE, RAN (3 January 1899 – 12 March 1968) was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy and the director of the Coastwatchers organisation for much of the Second World War.

[citation needed] In April 1939, aware of the stirrings in Europe, Feldt transferred back to the Navy’s emergency list.

In that same month Feldt set out to travel in New Guinea, Papua and the Solomons to personally enlist the help of every man who had a teleradio.

[4] Feldt then conceived the necessity of the positioning of Coastwatchers so that they formed a virtual fence reaching from the Dutch border with New Guinea to the eastern side of the Solomon Islands.

It was meant as a reminder to coastwatchers that it was not their duty to fight and so draw attention to themselves, but to sit circumspectly and unobtrusively, gathering information.

[4] Thus Feldt built up a team of reliable, trusted and experienced coastwatchers many of whom were expatriate Australians who knew the territory and the risks they would be taking.

When the War in the Pacific commenced at the end of 1941, Feldt's responsibilities for his Coastwatchers increased, as the Japanese advance left the island screen as the front line.

He insisted the Coastwatchers be given military standing which would provide them some income and protection for their widows via a pension, should the worst outcome occur.

These included organising supplies such as food, uniforms, radio parts and parachutes to drop the latter, arranging finance for the supplies and organising submarines, PT boats and aircraft to retrieve downed airmen, sailors and coastwatchers who were ill or injured and placing new coastwatchers in their stead.

Messages from Read and Mason, such as "24 bombers headed yours" gave the American fighter aircraft a distinct advantage with time to be in the air as a "welcoming party" for the Japanese planes.

"[citation needed] Besides their vital intelligence gathering, the Coastwatchers rescued 321 downed Allied airman, 280 sailors, 75 prisoners of war, 190 missionaries and civilians and hundreds of native peoples.

Feldt gave an emotional speech before unveiling a plaque at the base of the lighthouse which held the names of the thirty-six men who had given their lives.