The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Warrant Officer David McGregor, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial every 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on Warrant Officer David McGregor, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War.

CD Officer David McGregor, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 27 August 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Warrant Officer David McGregor, captain of HMAS Goorangai.

David McGregor was born in Banffshire, Scotland, to James and Jessie McGregor. Sometime in the 1920s, David came to Australia. His wife, Helen, and their two children, James and Elsie, followed him in 1927 on the old First World War troopship Themistocles. They settled in the Sydney suburb of Mortdale, and David worked as a fisherman, captaining the trawler Goorangai in the waters off New South Wales.

On the outbreak of war, the Goorangai was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping. David, who was a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, reported for active duty and remained captain of the Goorangai in its new role.

In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession in Bass Strait to German mine-laying operations. The Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the minefields. After two weeks on this operation the vessel returned to Queenscliff, but a rising storm caused McGregor to decide to move the ship to Portsea, which was a safer harbour.

As the Goorangai passed through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay in the darkness, it was hit by an outbound merchant ship and almost torn 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." Some eyewitnesses reported that they 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 David, were never found, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

HMAS Goorangai was the first vessel of the Royal Australian Navy to be lost in the Second World War, and was the first surface vessel of the RAN to be lost in wartime at all.

For the family of David McGregor, more sorrow was to come when James, his eldest son, was lost on board HMAS Canberra in 1942. Helen McGregor never remarried, and lived in the family home in Mortdale until her death in the 1960s.

The names of David and James McGregor are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with the crew of HMAS Goorangai and 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 Warrant Officer David McGregor, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.