HMAS Sydney Bartolomeo Colleoni Medal: Able Seaman Geoffrey Rosevear, HMAS Sydney (II)

Oxy-silver HMAS Sydney Bartolomeo Colleoni Medal (2nd type). Engraved around edge 'G. ROSEVEAR. AB. ON.19251'. The obverse shows HMAS Sydney II with the burning and sinking cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni behind her. The reverse bears laurel branches top and bottom, a naval crown and anchor and the words 'PRESENTED BY/ THE CITIZENS OF SYDNEY/ TO CAPTAIN J.A. COLLINS C.B., R.A.N./ THE OFFICERS AND SHIP'S COMPANY/ IN COMMEMORATION OF THEIR GALLANT FIGHT,/ AGAINST SUPERIOR SPEED AND WEIGHT OF/ ARMAMENT, WHICH RESULTED IN THE SINKING/ OF THE ITALIAN CRUISER/ BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI/ IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA/ JULY NINETEEN/ 1940

Born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1911, Geoffrey Rosevear entered the Royal Australian Navy on 12 February 1929. Assigned the service number 19251, he undertook basic training before being posted an ordinary seaman to the seaplane tender HMAS Albatross (I) at the end of the year. Rosevear was promoted able seaman in late 1930.

After serving in the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, where he trained as a rangefinder and her sister ship HMAS Australia, he joined the light cruiser HMAS Sydney II at the end of 1936. In 1938 he married Eileen Mather in Sydney.

During the Second World War Rosevear was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his actions during the Sydney's battle with the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni off Cape Spada, Crete on 19 July 1940, in which the Italian ship was sunk. The citation for the award reads: 'For gallantry and successful services in destroying the Italian Cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, and for his good service and noteworthy performance of his duty [as a rangefinder] during the action off Cape Spada on 19 July, 1940.'

In February 1941 HMAS Sydney returned to her home port, Sydney, where the crew were greeted by huge crowds. A street parade and civic reception followed where a small number of men were presented with a medallion to commemorate the sinking of the Bartolomeo Colleoni. An individually named medallion for each of the crew was subsequently delivered to the ship, which were to be distributed to the crew later on and were carried in the ship when it left Sydney at the end of the month. Many men were given a period of well-earned leave. Geoffrey's younger brother, Able Seaman Lance Rosevear, also serving in the ship, who had entered the RAN in 1935, took the opportunity to return to Launceston to marry his sweetheart Olive Killworth.

At the end of February the ship left to undertake escort and convoy duties. On 19 November 1941, off the coast of north-west Australia, Sydney was attacked by the German raider Kormoran. Both ships were mortally damaged. While the majority of the crew of the Kormoran survived, HMAS Sydney was last sighted by the Germans ablaze as she disappeared over the horizon, and sank with the loss of all hands. The names of Geoffrey Rosevear and his brother Lance are commemorated on the Plymouth Memorial in England and on the HMAS Sydney II Memorial at Geraldton, Western Australia.

This medallion, a Type 2, which were also named, was struck by Amor for presentation to those men who had either left the Sydney for other postings without collecting their medallions before the sinking, and to the families of those members of the crew who had remained in the ship, and whose medallions were lost when HMAS Sydney was sunk.