Robert Walls (admiral)

Vice Admiral Robert Andrew Kevin Walls, AO (15 March 1941 – 28 August 2023) was a senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

In 42 years of service, Walls commanded HMA Ships Tobruk, Moreton and Brisbane, and served as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and Maritime Commander Australia, before his career culminated in his appointment as Vice Chief of the Defence Force from April 1995 until his retirement in March 1997.

Walls was born in Colac, Victoria, on 15 March 1941, the eldest of four sons to Andrew Nowell Walls, a local government official who served as a cypher officer in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War, and Hilda Margaret (née Thompson).

[2] Walls graduated in late 1958 and, following service at sea in HMAS Swan, was sent to the Britannia Royal Naval College in the United Kingdom for further training from April 1959.

Following further specialist training at Cerberus later that year, Walls joined HMAS Derwent as part of the ship's commissioning crew in 1964.

The posting occasioned service aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and as a training officer at the Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton.

[2] Walls' second posting to the Perth was a relatively brief one, as he was relocated to the Navy Office in Canberra for staff work from February 1978 for a period of almost four years.

[11] Walls retired from the RAN in March 1997 after 42 years of service, and was succeeded as VCDF by Vice Admiral Chris Barrie.

[1][2] A keen fly fisher and opera attendee, Walls lived in the Australian Capital Territory until his death on 28 August 2023, at the age of 82.