Trench art lighthouse lamp : Stoker R E Selway, HMAS Torrens

Places	Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney Oceania: Australia, Northern Territory, Darwin Oceania: Australia, South Australia, Port Adelaide
Accession Number	REL43323
Collection type	Heraldry
Object type	Trench Art
Physical description	Brass, Bronze, Plastic, Steel
Maker	Selway, Roy Edward
Place made	Australia
Date made	1939-1945
Conflict	Second World War, 1939-1945

Description

Trench art lighthouse lamp. The body of the lamp is made from a 12 pounder naval gun shell case etched with a pattern of 'stone' blocks and inset with four perspex 'windows'. The removable 'lantern room' consists of a section of rolled steel mesh surmounted by a turned steel cap. A section of translucent plastic is placed inside the casing to represent the panes. Removing this section permits access to a 25 watt electric lightbulb connected to electrical flex running down the inside of the shell case and out through the base, where it is attached to a grey rubber plug and operated by a switch fitted to the rear of the base.

History / Summary

Lighthouse lamp made by Stoker R E Selway, HMAS Torrens.

Roy Edward Selway was born at North Adelaide, South Australia in 1919. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 9 September 1941, and after initial training at HMAS Cerberus, qualified as a Stoker II with the service number PA2269. He was posted to the shore establishment HMAS Torrens at Port Adelaide in March 1942, and was then posted to the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Toorie in July of the same year. Selway served in the Toorie for the rest of 1942, participating in minesweeping duties around the coast of southeastern Australia. It was during this period that he was promoted to Stoker.

Selway was posted to HMAS Penguin at Sydney in December 1942, and then to the HMAS Koompartoo in January 1943. Selway accompanied the Koompartoo on its subsequent deployment to Darwin where it was utilized as a boom defence vessel for the rest of the war. Selway too remained on at Darwin. In addition to the Koompartoo, he moved among Darwin's various naval establishments and ships, including the other boom defence vessels HMA ships Kangaroo, Koala and Kara Kara, the depot which serviced them, and the shore establishment HMAS Melville.

He returned to the shore establishment HMAS Torrens in November 1944, where he was posted to the boom defences, before being demobilized in November 1945. Roy Selway died in April 1967.