Trench art vase : Stoker R E Selway, HMAS Torrens

Vase made from a chromed 40 mm Bofors naval gun shell case etched with the Australian coat-of-arms, with 'RAN' on the shield and '1945' beneath it. The vase has rings of decorative stamping around the top and bottom.

Vase 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 postings, 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.