Good conduct stripes : Leading Seaman V P Sotheren, RAN

Two gold lace good conduct stripes (chevrons) sewn to a black wool cloth ground.

Born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1918, Victor Peace Sotheren entered the Royal Australian Navy on 4 May 1936 and trained at Flinders Naval Depot (HMAS Cerberus) in Victoria. He was assigned the service number 21059. In December he joined the crew of HMAS Australia as an ordinary seaman. He was promoted able seaman at the end of 1937. In August 1938 he was posted to HMAS Sydney where he remained until the end of January 1939. This was followed by a posting to HMAS Hobart between June 1939 and April 1941.

Sotheren married his childhood sweetheart, Noreen Valma Sutton, while he was on leave in Sydney on 12 January 1941.

In October 1941 Sotheren was sent to Singapore to join the crew of the destroyer HMAS Vampire as she was completing her refit in the dockyards there. The ship completed sea trials at the end of November. At the beginning of December the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse arrived in Singapore and Vampire was detailed as one of their three escorting destroyer. On 8 December the ships left Singapore in an attempt to interrupt the Japanese invasion of Malaya. Both battleships were sunk in the South China Sea by the Japanese on 10 December. Vampire rescued 9 officers, 215 ratings and a civilian and transported them to Singapore. For the rest of December and the first three weeks of January 1942 Vampire escorted shipping convoys in and out of Singapore. Sotheren had qualified as a torpedo man and was promoted leading seaman on 1 January.

On 26 January, together with the destroyer HMS Thanet, Vampire sailed to attack Japanese transports 80 miles north of Singapore but found them protected by a Japanese cruiser and six destroyers. Outnumbered, Thanet and Vampire retired but were attacked and the Thanet sunk. Vampire returned to Singapore unscathed and after the fall of the island to the Japanese was sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to escort and screen the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. Both ships were attacked and sunk off Batticaloa by the Japanese on 9 April; Vampire lost her captain and eight ratings. Sotheren was wearing this shirt when he was rescued by the hospital ship Vita.

After his return to Australia Sotheren served in HMAS Koopa from the end of 1942, HMAS Kanimbla in 1946 and HMAS Barwon in 1947-48, as well as in various shore establishments. He was discharged from the RAN in February 1949. During his service he was awarded three Good Conduct Stripes, in 1939, 1944 and 1948. These good conduct stripes date from 1946, when gold lace was re-introduced into the RAN after wartime economy had prohibited its use.