Rear Admiral David Aniumle Hansen (17 May 1923 – 28 January 2008) was the first Ghanaian to be appointed Chief of Naval Staff of the Ghana Navy.

David Hansen trained at the Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School in the United Kingdom. In earlier years he had attended Accra Academy and upon completion had worked briefly for Ghana Post.

Army

On the completion of his training, Hansen was commissioned into the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force, on 20 January 1951. In 1958, he became one of the original officers of the Ghana Regiment, when the Gold Coast gained its independence. He was then selected to transfer from the Ghana Army, to be a founding officer of the new Ghana Navy.

Navy

When the Ghana Navy was established on 29 July 1959, its first head was D. A. Foreman, a retired British naval officer. He was commissioned as a Ghana Navy officer, with the rank of Commodore, to give a new service a proper naval grounding.

David Hansen worked alongside him, combining his own Ghanaian military experience with Foreman's Royal Navy expertise to give a new service its own distinct ethos and identity. Hansen was duly appointed as the first Ghanaian Chief of Naval Staff of the Ghana Navy and retired with the flag rank of Rear Admiral.

In addition, he served as an aide-de-camp to President Kwame Nkrumah.

The Ghana Navy ship GNS Hansen was named after him.