The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Lieutenant Commander Gordon William Boyle, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Meridith Duncan, the story for this day was on Lieutenant Commander Gordon William Boyle, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War.

Lieutenant Commander Gordon William Boyle, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 3 October 2013

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Commander Gordon William Boyle of the Royal Australian Navy.

Gordon Boyle was born in Corindhap, Victoria, in 1905, the eldest son of William and Annie Boyle. In 1933 he married Marjorie Thatcher, and they lived in Surrey Hills, Victoria. Boyle worked as a librarian on Elizabeth Street and had two small children. He had been a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve for 12 years at the outbreak of the Second World War, and was well known as a leading marksman for both the Melbourne Rifle Club and the Naval Reservists’ team.

Although very experienced in the Naval Reserve, Boyle had been on land for almost all of his service. He was called up for active service shortly after the outbreak of war, and was delighted to be posted to the HMAS Goorangai. He described the minesweeper to a friend as “223 tons of fighting fury”. The Goorangai had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping. Lieutenant Commander Gordon Boyle would be the highest ranking officer on board, but he was there as a minesweeping adviser only.

In early November, Boyle was at home on leave when a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession to German mine-laying operations in Bass Strait. Boyle was quickly recalled to HMAS Goorangai, one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and clear the minefields. After two weeks on this operation, the minesweeper returned to Queenscliff. But a rising storm sent the ship to the safer harbour of Portsea.

As the Goorangai passed in darkness through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in half. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: “In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge, the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water.” In that brief time, some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness and lifeboats deployed immediately, but despite a long search no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks, diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. The remaining 19, including Lieutenant Commander Boyle, were never found, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

Marjorie Boyle never remarried.

The names of Gordon Boyle and the crew of HMAS Goorangai are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with more than 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lieutenant Commander Gordon William Boyle, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.