The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (20863) Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (20863) Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War.

20863 Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy
KIA 4 March 1942
Photograph: P03791.002

Story delivered 4 March 2015

Today we pay tribute to Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor, who was killed on active service with the Royal Australian Navy in 1942.

Born in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton on 29 April 1918, Ronald Taylor – known as Ron – was the fourth of ten children of George and Elsie Taylor.

Growing up in Port Melbourne, young Ron took a great interest in the ships that came into port – particularly the navy ships. As a seven-year-old he became the mascot for the sloop HMAS Marguerite and was even issued with his own uniform.

During the Great Depression Ron’s father abandoned the family. His elder brothers went to Queensland to work, his elder sister left when an opportunity arose for work on a farm, while Ron and his brother Ray stayed home. His five younger siblings were all placed in institutions. Eventually, Ron had to find work, and he left school at the age of eight to work as a labourer.

In June 1935 Ron Taylor enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and began training at Flinders Naval Depot. Over the following years he served on the cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Adelaide, on the destroyer HMAS Vampire and, in August 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, on the sloop HMAS Yarra.

Spending the first 12 months of the war in Australian waters, HMAS Yarra was posted in August 1940 to join Red Sea Force at the port of Aden. Over the next year the ship took part in patrols in the Indian Ocean and in the Iraq and Iran campaigns in the Persian Gulf.

In November 1941, HMAS Yarra took part of in convoy duty in the Mediterranean, escorting convoys supplying the besieged garrison at Tobruk. During these runs Taylor – in command of one of Yarra’s 4-inch guns – was active in defending the convoy from attacks by German aircraft.
Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific in December 1941, Yarra returned from the Mediterranean. Sent to Java for escort duties between Batavia and Singapore, on 5 February 1941 it rescued 1,800 survivors from the sunken troopship Empress of Asia while under attack. Taylor’s gunnery was praised by the Yarra’s commander, Hastings Harrington, who wrote, “on this occasion, as on many others, he controlled his gun with judgement and determination … [his] keenness and courage a good example to all those in his vicinity.”

At the end of February Yarra, now commanded by Robert Rankin, was escorting three ships from Java to Fremantle. On 4 March the convoy was intercepted by five Japanese warships. Despite being outgunned and outranged, Yarra placed itself between its convoy and the enemy and prepared to attack.

Despite its gallant efforts, Yarra took several hits and began to list heavily after enemy shells destroyed the engine room and steering. Rankin ordered the crew to abandon ship, yet in a final act of defiance Taylor ignored the command and continued firing until he was killed in action, just before the Yarra sank beneath the waves. He was 23 years old.

Of the ship’s 151 crew, 138 were killed in the action or later died on life rafts. Their names are commemorated in Britain on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, dedicated to the thousands of British and Commonwealth sailors who lost their lives at sea or who have no known grave.

Taylor’s name – along with all of the crew of the HMAS Yarra who lost their lives – is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around some 40,000 Australians killed in 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 Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor, and all of those Australians who gave their lives during the Second World War.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/yarra

http://adb.anu.edu.au

http://www.naa.gov.au

http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-yarra-ii