The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (W1631) Stoker Herbert James Dempster, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (W1631) Stoker Herbert James Dempster, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.

W1631 Stoker Herbert James Dempster, HMAS Sydney (II)
KIA 20 November 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 15 December 2014

Today we remember Stoker Herbert James Dempster and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), lost after engaging the German surface raider Kormoran in 1941.

A modified Leander-class light cruiser, Sydney was armed with eight 6-inch guns and was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy. Built in England, the cruiser was commissioned into the navy in 1935.

Herbert Dempster was born on 5 November 1921 in Burnley, Melbourne, the youngest son of William and Stella Dempster. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 3 July 1940.

It was a dark time. France had just fallen to the German blitzkrieg, and the battle of Britain had just begun. The British Commonwealth stood alone against Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. In Australia there was a general rush to colours as men volunteered for the forces. All three of William and Stella Dempster’s sons enlisted, while a son-in-law, Roy Coote, was already serving in the navy.

Days after Herbert Dempster joined up, his brother Ronald transferred from the Militia to the Australian Imperial Force. By the end of the month John Dempster, the family’s middle son, had also enlisted. Ronald served with the army service corps in the Middle East and the Pacific, while John joined an infantry battalion and was sent to Malaya. Captured by the Japanese when Singapore fell in February 1942, he would die on the Burma–Thailand Railway in October 1943.

Herbert Dempster joined the navy as stoker second class. From November 1940 he was posted to HMAS Cerberus, the navy’s training establishment on Western Port Bay. He joined Sydney’s crew shortly after the cruiser’s celebrated deployment in the Mediterranean. In September Dempster was promoted to stoker.

On 19 November Sydney was steaming back to Fremantle, having escorted a troopship part of the way to Singapore. At about 4 pm the cruiser spotted a suspicious merchant ship and went to investigate. Sydney had almost drawn alongside the vessel when it suddenly revealed its true identity as a German raider.

Hoisting the German naval ensign, Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes. Its first salvo slammed into Sydney’s bridge. The Australian cruiser returned fire, but Kormoran’s second and third salvos hit Sydney’s bridge and amidships. The cruiser’s three main turrets were soon out of action, but a fourth kept up fast and accurate fire that hit the raider’s funnel and engine room. Sydney was hit by a torpedo and, mortally damaged and ablaze, turned away from the raider while continuing to fight using its secondary armament and torpedoes.

Kormoran was also burning. At 6.25 pm its captain gave the order to abandon ship. As the German sailors evacuated their stricken vessel they watched the Australian cruiser, now only a distant glow on the dark horizon, disappear into the night.

By midnight Sydney was lost with all 645 hands, including Dempster. He was 20 years old.

Herbert Dempster is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Stoker Herbert James Dempster and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
Herbert James Dempster service record, National Archive of Australia (NAA), Canberra: A6770.
“Victorians in HMAS Sydney”, The Argus, 1 December 1941.
G. Hermon Gill, Royal Australian Navy 1939–1942 (Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1957).
Karl James, “Gallant fighter”, Wartime 43, 2008, pp. 36-40.