Vice Admiral David John Shackleton AO (born 2 March 1948) is a retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), who served as Chief of Navy from 1999 to 2002.

Shackleton was born in Leeds, United Kingdom, on 2 March 1948 to Ernest Shackleton and Elise Wilson. The family immigrated to Australia in 1959 and settled in Adelaide, where Shackleton was educated at Croydon High School.^[1]

Shackleton joined the Navy in 1966 under Supplementary List (Executive) Scheme, and saw service in Vietnam while qualifying as a seaman officer.^[2] He was given command of the destroyer escort HMAS Derwent in 1988,^[3] was the Maritime commander for the opposing forces during Exercise Kangaroo 1989, and reached the rank of captain in 1989. He commanded the destroyer HMAS Brisbane from 1991 to 1992,^[3] and was promoted to commodore in 1993.

He is a graduate of the RAN Staff College and the Joint Services Staff College, and has earned a Master of Business Administration (executive) from Monash University.^[3] He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

He was promoted to rear admiral in 1998,^[2] and then vice admiral and Chief of Navy in 1999.^[3] He initiated various organisational changes across the Navy.^[3]

He was a senior Navy witness to the Senate Enquiry into the Children overboard affair.^[4] He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2000,^[5] and Commander of the United States Legion of Merit in 2001. He retired from the RAN in 2002.^[3]

Shackleton was appointed to the Defence SA Advisory Board in South Australia in 2007, the year of its establishment.