The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran, HMAS Vampire (I), 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 Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran, HMAS Vampire (I), Second World War.

Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran, HMAS Vampire (I)
KIA 9 April 1942

Story delivered 9 April 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran.

William Moran was born on 11 December 1903 in Fremantle, Western Australia, to William and Rose Moran. When he was a baby his family moved to Kalgoorlie. His father, “Billy” Moran, was a well-known sportsman and hotelier on the Kalgoorlie goldfields.

Moran grew up in a number of different hotels, and his father spent time working as an auctioneer, brewery traveller, and officer of the Kalgoorlie Roads Board, as was as being involved in football and horse racing. “Young Bill” Moran’s older brother, Harry, became well known in trotting circles.

William Moran was educated at the Kalgoorlie State School, but was always determined to join the navy. In 1917 he went to the Jervis Bay Naval College, proving a keen and able sailor. In 1922 he was seconded to the British Royal Navy for three years in order to gain experience and study at the Greenwich Naval College. During this time he was regularly promoted.

Moran returned to a post on HMAS Adelaide, and then served on HMAS Brisbane. In 1928 he again went to Britain to serve with their navy, this time for just over two years. During this time he became a qualified pilot, gaining his pilot’s certificate and licence at Hampshire Aeroplane Club. When he returned to Australia he made sure his licence was kept current. Back in Australia he continued to study with the navy, specialising in torpedo strategy, and was posted to HMAS Repulse. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Moran was serving at HMAS Cerberus, having been recently promoted to the rank of commander.

In 1940 and 1941 he served in HMAS Canberra. In October 1941 Commander Moran took command of HMAS Vampire in Singapore.

Vampire was a badly outdated destroyer that had been launched in 1917 and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1933 after service with the Royal Navy. Vampire had been undergoing a refit, and its departure was delayed by a collision in Keppel Harbour in November.

On the afternoon of 10 December 1941, HMAS Vampire was accompanying the Prince of Wales and Repulse when they were sunk off the east coast of Malaya. Vampire rescued 200 of the 800 men who survived the sinking of Repulse.

Early the following year, after several weeks of escorting shipping around Malaya, Singapore, and Batavia, Vampire was ordered to attack Japanese transports some 80 miles north of Singapore. Vampire and HMAS Thanet encountered what has been described as “a veritable hornet’s nest”: a Japanese cruiser and six destroyers protecting the transport. In the confusion that followed, Vampire was able to get away, while HMAS Thanet was sunk.

When it was wrongly reported to Bill Moran in Kalgoorlie that Vampire had sunk a Japanese destroyer during the encounter, he responded by saying: “My word, that is good news! Young Bill’s mother and his two sisters will be delighted to hear of this. The navy has been his one ideal ever since he was a youngster.”

In February 1942 Moran took HMAS Vampire to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), escorting two merchant ships, and later joining the East Indies Station. Within two months the situation had deteriorated. The Japanese took control of the Bay of Bengal and threatened waters to the south and south west of Colombo. In early April the deputy commander in chief of the station began to clear the harbour of shipping. Several Allied vessels were sunk by Japanese aircraft.

On the morning of 9 April 1942, Vampire left Trincomalee with the aircraft carrier Hermes and sailed south down the Ceylon coast. They were spotted by the Japanese and attacked by dive bombers. Hermes was sunk before the bombers turned their attention to Vampire.

A member of the crew later recalled:

We were a mile or so head of [Hermes] and zig-zagging to evade dive-bombing attacks when the first bomb got us. We were hit again, and it seemed that there were clouds of bombers overhead … soon the Vampire was sinking. She broke in two and sank in 10 minutes.

I’ll never forget that the last part of the Vampire to sink was her ensign.

Most of the crew of the Vampire were saved, but seven ratings did not survive the sinking. Commander William Moran went down with his ship, missing and presumed killed in action.

A survivor recalled:

Commander Moran was an ‘A’ grade naval officer in every way … He was the best friend any man on the ship ever had; he was exceedingly popular and knew his job thoroughly. He told me to ‘get over the side’ and that was the last I heard of him. What happened to him then I don’t know.

Moran was later mentioned in despatches for his courage.

His body was never recovered, and today he is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Devon, England.

He was 39 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving 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 Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section