Hector Macdonald Laws Waller, DSO & Bar (4 April 1900 – 1 March 1942) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

He assumed command of HMAS Perth in October 1941, taking part in the Battle of the Java Sea shortly before his final action in Sunda Strait.

[1][2] Hec Waller was named in honour of General Hector MacDonald, hero of the Boer War, and a forebear called Laws who was an admiral and a contemporary of Viscount Nelson.

[5] In 1917, his final year at the college, he was raised to chief cadet captain and won the King's Medal, awarded for "gentlemanly bearing, character, good influence among his fellows and officer-like qualities".

[1][6] Promoted to midshipman on 1 January 1918, he was posted to Britain where, in April, he was appointed to serve in the Royal Navy's (RN) Grand Fleet with the dreadnought HMS Agincourt.

In July 1930, he was posted aboard the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) flagship, the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, as squadron signals officer.

[15] Stationed in the Mediterranean, Brazen monitored progress of the Spanish Civil War, a duty that included protecting British merchant vessels and rescuing the crews of sinking ships.

[18] At the outbreak of World War II, Waller was appointed captain of HMAS Stuart, taking charge of a group of four other obsolete ex-RN destroyers—HMA Ships Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager, and Waterhen—that the Germans later nicknamed the "Scrap Iron Flotilla".

[1][19] The ships were en route to Singapore for training when the British and Australian governments agreed that they should be assigned to the Mediterranean as the 19th Destroyer Division, under Waller's control.

[20] Arriving at Malta in late December, Waller made a positive initial impression on senior RN commanders; this was soon borne out by his actions during the salvage of the Trocas, a disabled tanker.

[22] In September, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for "courage, enterprise, and devotion to duty on recent engagements"—in particular, his pinpointing of enemy minefields.

[24] As the Allied armies began to counterattack Italian forces in December 1940, the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, gave Waller command of the new Inshore Squadron, comprising destroyers, minesweepers, and auxiliaries.

[27] In March, Stuart escorted Allied troop transports to Greece as part of Operation Lustre, narrowly avoiding falling victim to Axis dive-bomber attacks.

[25][29] Waller was mentioned in despatches twice during 1941: in July for his army cooperation role with the Inshore Squadron off the Libyan coast, and in November for his service during the Greek campaign.

[33] On the occasion of a visit to Alexandria by Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Cunningham escorted him to Stuart and declared: "And now you are going to meet one of the greatest captains who ever sailed the seas—his name is Waller".

[25][34] According to author Ray Parkin, who began writing while a prisoner of war, "Andrew Cunningham and Hector Waller were cast in the same mould: men would follow them, suffer, and be glad about it.

Low on ammunition, Waller made the decision to withdraw, accompanied by the heavy cruiser USS Houston under the command of Captain Albert H. Rooks.

[5][49] Graduating as chief cadet captain, John Waller became a weapons electrical engineer and attained the rank of commander in 1967, before transferring to the Emergency Reserve as a senior Navy research scientist.

[59] Concluding its investigations in February 2013, the tribunal recommended that no further award be made to any of the thirteen servicemen, but that the name Waller (among others) should continue to be used for RAN ships after the current bearer was decommissioned.