Hallifax joined HMS Britannia in 1899 and served as a Naval Advisor in Turkey, for which he was awarded the Order of the Medjideh (3rd class).[3]
During the First World War served as first lieutenant and torpedo lieutenant on board HMS Ajax. After being attached to the Inter-Allied Commission in Berlin he served in HMS Valiant, Home Fleet, from 1921 to 1923. He then attended various disarmament meetings at Geneva and was promoted captain in 1924. Two years later he commanded the cruiser HMS Carlisle, of the China Squadron, remaining there until 1928. He was later appointed naval attaché in Paris and also served in that capacity in Madrid, Brussels and The Hague. He returned to active naval duties when he was appointed to command of HMS Malaya from 1932 to 1934. In 1935 he became Director of the Signal Division of the Admiralty, and was promoted Rear-Admiral, retired, in the same year.[1]
As Director of the Seaward Defence Force, he established a small fleet of minesweepers and anti-submarine vessels for coastal defence, and organised naval detachments in the major ports. On the 15 January 1940, the new Seaward Defence Force (SDF) took over responsibility for naval defence from the Royal Navy.[7]: 1 Cdr James Dalgleish was appointed as commander of one of the newly formed Port Divisions (later renamed detachments). Dalgleish was soon thereafter to rise to command the SDF on the death of Hallifax.[7]: 1
Promotions
Confirmed in the rank of Sub-Lieutenant 15 July 1903.[8]
He was killed on the 28 March 1941 in an aeroplane crash at Baboon Point, 74 kilometres (46 mi) north of Saldanha while returning from a tour of inspection to the newly established naval detachment in Walvis Bay.[12][13][7]: 10
^Goosen, JC (1973). South Africa's Navy The First Fifty Years. Cape Town: WJ Flesch & Partners. p. 228. ISBN0-949989-02-9.
^Ross, Charles. "South African Legion - DEATH OF REAR ADMIRAL G. W. HALLIFAX CMG". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 15 April 2023. On 28 March 1941 Rear Admiral Guy Hallifax (first Director of the Seaward Defence Force) was returning from a staff visit to Walvis Bay when a South African Airways Lockheed 18-08 Lodestar, Registration ZS-AST en-route to Cape Town, flew into the high ground near Elands Bay in dense fog. There were no survivors. Those killed are buried in a mass grave in the Plumstead Cemetery in Cape Town. CREW: 102796 Captain Frederick Wilhelm Le Roux (Pilot & Aircraft Commander). P/203109 Lieutenant Johannes Petrus Meyer (Co-Pilot). 29383 Air Sergeant John William Shelly (Flight Engineer). 96365 Air Sergeant Andries Petrus van Wijk (Flight Engineer) PASSENGERS: 7000 Rear Admiral Guy Waterhouse Hallifax CMG (Director of the South African Seaward Defence Force). P/13349 Colonel Harold Ernst Cilliers (Deputy Director of the South African Coastal Defence Corps). P/40727 Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Pitcairn (Deputy Director Technical Services, Coastal Defence Corps). C. P. McMichall. Building contractor. Morris Kaplan. Building contractor. A, Kendierski. Building contractor. The South African Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the grave.
