The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (PM3082) Able Seaman Francis William Jeffs, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (PM3082) Able Seaman Francis William Jeffs, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.

PM3082 Able Seaman Francis William Jeffs, HMAS Sydney (II)
KIA 20 November 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 25 March 2015

Today we remember Able Seaman Francis William Jeffs and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), lost after engaging the German surface raider Kormoran in November 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 RAN in 1935.

Francis Jeffs was born in Strathmerton, a country town in Northern Victoria, on 1 November 1921. He was the son of William and Phoebe Jeffs. William had volunteered for the First Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of the Great War. He served in the Middle East but returned to Australia in May 1915 and was discharged as medically unfit. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he again enlisted in the army in January 1940 and served for nearly five years in Australia and the Pacific.

Francis Jeffs studied at Frankston High School before going on to work as a joiner. Ten months after his father enlisted, Francis Jeffs joined the Royal Australian Navy on 14 October 1940, a month shy of his 19th birthday. Jeffs was a keen yachtsman and a foundation member of the Frankston Yacht Club. He was 171 centimetres, with fair hair, blue eyes and a fresh completion, with tattoos on both forearms.

Jeffs was posted as an ordinary seaman to HMAS Lonsdale, the navy’s training establishment in Port Melbourne, before being moved to HMAS Cerberus on Western Port Bay, where he remained until February 1941. He was then posted to HMAS Penguin in Sydney Harbour for just over a month, before joining Sydney’s company on 28 March, after the cruiser’s celebrated return from the Mediterranean. In mid-August he was promoted to able seamen.

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 decided to investigate. By 5:30 pm Sydney had almost drawn alongside the vessel when it revealed its true identity as a German raider.

Hoisting the German naval ensign, Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes into Sydney’s bridge. The Australian cruiser returned fire, but Kormoran’s second and third salvos again 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 Kormoran’s funnel and engine room. Sydney, in turn, was hit by a torpedo between turrets. Mortally damaged and ablaze, Sydney turned away from the raider but continued 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 Jeffs. He was 20 years old.

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

This is one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Able Seaman Francis William Jeffs and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
National Archive of Australia, Francis William Jeffs, service record.

National Archives of Australia, William Milne Jeffs, service record.

“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.