Rear Admiral Gerard Charles Muirhead-Gould DSC (29 May 1889–26 April 1945) was an officer of the Royal Navy.
Muirhead-Gould was born in London.[1] He was the son of Arthur Lewis Gould and Emily Gertrude Lilias Muirhead. He joined the Royal Naval Cadets in January 1904.[2] During World War I, he earned a Distinguished Service Cross, and was recognised as a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur and a Chevalier of the Order of the Redeemer.[2] Between 1933 and 1936 Muirhead-Gould was a member of the Naval Intelligence Division, assigned to the British Embassy in Berlin.[2] During this time he kept Winston Churchill informed of the German military buildup, particularly in relation to the Treaty of Versailles and the later Anglo-German Naval Agreement.[2]
During the war, a heart condition prevented Muirhead-Gould from going to sea.[3] The sinking of British battleship HMS Royal Oak on 14 October 1939, while at anchor in Scapa Flow by German submarine U-47 resulted in an Admiralty Board of Inquiry into how a submarine could have penetrated the harbour's defences, and what could be done to prevent a recurrence.[4] Muirhead-Gould, then a Commander, was one of the three senior officers on the Board.[4]
In February 1940, Muirhead-Gould became the Naval Officer In Command of Sydney Harbour, a posting that lasted until September 1944, although he was not popular among the officers and sailors of the Royal Australian Navy under his command.[5] He was the senior Allied officer during the relatively unsuccessful Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. At some point Churchill considered Muirhead-Gould for the position of the Chief Director of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), although nothing came of this.[5]
Muirhead-Gould's previous experience in Germany resulted in his transfer in September 1944 to the captured German naval base at Wilhelmshaven.[3] There he suffered a fatal heart attack on 26 April 1945.[3]