Ships
- HMAS Shropshire (73) In command, 21 October 1944
Charles Alfred Godfrey Nichols was born on 1 October 1898. He joined the Royal Navy in 1916, was appointed midshipman in March 1917, and became a sub-lieutenant in May 1918. He was promoted lieutenant in May 1920, lieutenant-commander in May 1928, and commander in June 1934. In November 1936 he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order.
In the Second World War he served as an acting captain and was mentioned in despatches on 1 January 1941. From 12 February 1941 to 3 March 1942 he commanded the armed merchant cruiser Canton on trade protection. His promotion to captain was dated 31 December 1941, while he still had that ship.
His Pacific command was the County-class heavy cruiser HMAS Shropshire, manned by the Royal Australian Navy. He assumed command on 25 September 1944. The cruiser was already with the Allied fleet pressing north through New Guinea toward the Philippines. On 21 October 1944 he was in command off Leyte as the landing force went ashore. Shropshire worked with the cruiser group that included HMAS Australia, in which John Augustine Collins flew his broad pennant as commodore. That day a Japanese aircraft struck the bridge of Australia, killing her captain, Emile Dechaineux, and wounding Collins. Shropshire stayed with the support force.
Before dawn on 25 October a Japanese squadron under Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura tried to force Surigao Strait and break into Leyte Gulf. Allied destroyers attacked with torpedoes, and the cruiser and battleship line opened fire. Shropshire engaged the battleship Yamashiro with her eight-inch guns and put in a run of broadsides over about a quarter of an hour, with hits credited to her. Yamashiro and most of the ships in that Japanese column were destroyed by the combined fire of the Allied force. Shropshire came through the action.
She remained in the Philippines campaign. In January 1945 she helped cover the landings in Lingayen Gulf, on Luzon, where Japanese aircraft attacked the invasion fleet in strength. On 27 March 1945 Nichols was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for skill, determination, and courage in the Leyte Gulf operations while commanding Shropshire. He was mentioned in despatches again on 1 May 1945. The United States awarded him the Bronze Star Medal for his service in the ship.
He stayed in command of Shropshire until 14 April 1946, through the last months of the Pacific war and the period after Japan’s surrender. He retired from the Royal Navy on 8 January 1951. Charles Alfred Godfrey Nichols died in 1986.