Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Willie (the name under which he enlisted!) joined the Royal Navy as a 16 year old in April 1918. After training at HMS Ganges he joined the battleship HMS Renown in March 1919 as a Boy 1st Class. Willie first visited Australia when the Prince of Wales (Duke of Windsor) toured Australia on Renown in 1919-1920. Willie left Renown in November 1920 and in May 1924 he was posted to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on temporary transfer. Rated Leading Torpedo man (LTO) in July 1925, in October 1925 he voluntarily transferred permanently to the RAN. From 1925-27 he served at the RAN College Jervis Bay, and then spent several years at sea on HMAS Swordsman (destroyer) and HMAS Albatross, a seaplane carrier. On discharge after 12 years total RN and RAN service, Willie became a RAN Fleet Reservist (inactive), married in 1934 and lived at Bondi, NSW. Torpedo specialists were skilled electricians, and in civilian life in the 1930s Willie employed those skills to work as an electrician.
In mid-1940 Willie was recalled to the wartime RAN and in November 1940 shipped to the UK, joining the N-Class destroyer HMAS Nestor in February 1941. Nestor escorted North Atlantic convoys, took part in the hunt for the Bismarck, helped capture vital Enigma codes near Iceland, escorted Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, engaged in escort duties, sunk the enemy submarine U-127 off Spain and protected the carrier HMS Indomitable in delivering aircraft to Java in early 1942. In June 1942 Nestor was bombed whilst on a Malta convoy, abandoned and sunk. She is the only major RAN ship to never visit Australia. Willie transferred to HMAS Nizam which served in the invasion of Madagascar and patrolled the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In August 1943 he came ashore in Australia and by January 1944 he was Acting Petty Officer and rated Torpedo Gunner’s Mate (TGM).
In 1945 his discharge was deferred to join the newly commissioned destroyer HMAS Bataan, which left Australia June 1945 for the Philippines and was in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 when Japan formally surrendered. Bataan assisted in POW repatriation in Japan and returned to Australia in November 1945. Willie was discharged in March 1946 aged 45, after almost 18 years service and resumed his civilian life in Bondi, NSW. His wife Edna died in 1976 and Willie in 1986. Both are buried at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery, NSW.