The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (13497) Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson, 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 (13497) Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.


Not for Public Release due to technical issues.

13497 Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson, HMAS Sydney (II)
KIA 20 November 1941
Photograph: P06348.001

Story delivered 19 November 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), who were 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 RAN in 1935.

Louis “Sam” Sampson was born on 30 September 1907 in St Peters, Adelaide, the eldest child of Nicholas and Olive Sampson. As a young boy he lived on the family’s small farm at Crystal Brook, near Port Pirie, until they moved to Gawler and then Port Adelaide, where Louis and his younger brothers attended the local public school. Louis was working as a newspaper employee when he enlisted in the RAN on 3 May 1922. He was 15 years old. His two brothers later also joined the navy.

With the rating of “Boy 2nd Class”, Sampson joined the boys’ training ship HMAS Tingira, moored in Rose Bay, Sydney, before being transferred to the supply branch and becoming a Victualling Boy. For the rest of the 1920s Sampson served in various postings, including on HMAS Brisbane, HMAS Cerberus, and the light cruiser HMAS Adelaide. In 1930 Sampson briefly served on the staff of the RAN College at Jarvis Bay on the New South Wales south coast.

Towards the end of 1930 Sampson was posted to the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra for just over two years before returning to Cerberus in late 1932. In 1935 he married Mary Agnes Murphy in Nowra, and they went on to have three children.

Sampson returned to HMAS Brisbane’s company in 1935 and sailed with the aged cruiser to Britain, where it would be scrapped. There he joined the commissioning company of Sydney.

After some brief re-postings, including to the sea-plane tender HMAS Albatross, Sampson returned to Sydney in July 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War it was one of several Australian warships sent to the Mediterranean, where it demonstrated its fighting prowess sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the battle of Cape Spada. In February 1941 Sydney returned to Australia and a hero’s welcome.

Sampson was an accomplished sketch artist, and during a visit to Western Australia he produced a chalk drawing of the ship that was presented to the sergeants’ mess at Royal Australian Air Force station at Geraldton. The sketch was captioned “Good luck to the air boys” and was signed by 14 of Sydney’s petty officers, including Sampson. This sketch is now in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

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

Hoisting its German naval ensign, Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes. Its first salvo slammed into Sydney’s bridge. The Australian cruiser returned fire, but the raider’s second and third salvos hit Sydney’s bridge and amidships. The Sydney’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, 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 gone, lost with all 645 hands, including Sampson. He was 34 years old.

Louis Sampson is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain, and on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section