Informal portrait of Hunter Valley crew members of HMAS Sydney II, with family and friends, at ...

Informal portrait of Hunter Valley crew members of HMAS Sydney II, with family and friends, at Newcastle Railway Station in the evening of 12 February 1941. The ship had returned to Sydney after service in the Mediterranean, and on the 11 February the crew had enjoyed a luncheon in Sydney Town Hall following a ceremonial welcome home march through George Street, Sydney. On 19 November 1941 the Sydney was sunk in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia, by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. All 645 crew members aboard HMAS Sydney were lost. 23464 Able Seaman (AB) Martin Curtis James (front, second from left), of Newcastle, NSW, who standing next to his mother, Rose James, was 19 years of age at the time of his death. The other two crew members who were also probably on board the Sydney when it sank, are unidentified.