The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (22991) Supply Assistant David John Woolstencroft, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy, First 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 (22991) Supply Assistant David John Woolstencroft, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy,

22991 Supply Assistant David John Woolstencroft, HMAS Yarra, Royal Australian Navy
KIA 4 March 1942

Story delivered 4 May 2017

Today we pay tribute to Supply Assistant David John Woolstencroft, who was killed on active service with the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War.

Born in Warragul, Victoria, on 25 January 1922, David Woolstencroft was the son of Bernard Woodall Woolstencroft and Isobel Selby Woolstencroft. He was the eldest of five siblings. The family lived in Newport, in Melbourne’s west. As a young boy, David attended Neerim South State School, Noojee State School, and Mordialloc High School.

During the Second World War, four members of the Woolstencroft family served their nation. The father, Bernard, a veteran of the First World War, enlisted again and served as a paymaster in Melbourne, holding the rank of staff sergeant. His three eldest children also served: David in the Royal Australian Navy, Bernard in the Royal Australian Air Force, and Joan in the Women’s Auxillary Australian Air Force.

David Woolstencroft enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy in March 1939, only months before the outbreak of war. In November 1939 he joined the crew of the sloop HMAS Yarra, which was posted to the port of Aden in August 1940 to join Red Sea Force. Over the next year the
ship took part in patrols in the Indian Ocean and in the Persian Gulf. In November 1941 HMAS Yarra was in the Mediterranean, helping to escort convoys bringing supplies to the besieged garrison at Tobruk.

Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific in December 1941, Yarra returned from the Mediterranean. The ship was sent to Java for escort duties between Batavia and Singapore, and in February 1942 it was involved in the rescue of 1,800 survivors from the troopship Empress of Asia, which was sunk by Japanese dive bombers near Singapore.

On 4 March, the Yarra was escorting a small convoy of three merchant ships from Java to Fremantle which was intercepted by five Japanese warships – three heavy cruisers and two destroyers. Yarra’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Robert Rankin, dispersed the convoy and turned Yarra towards the Japanese warships in an attempt to place the small sloop between the enemy and the merchant ships. Though outgunned and outranged, Yarra laid down a smokescreen and began its attack.

The Japanese warships swiftly overwhelmed and sank the three merchant ships while inflicting devastating damage on Yarra. Shortly before being killed by a direct salvo to the bridge, Rankin gave the order to abandon ship. Burning fiercely and with its engine room and steering destroyed, Yarra was listing heavily and sinking at the stern.

Acting Leading Seaman Ronald “Buck” Taylor manned Yarra’s remaining gun and continued to fire until he was killed. His actions
were credited by survivors for allowing them to gain the relative safety of the life rafts and Carley floats. Shortly after, Yarra slipped beneath the waves.

Of the 151 crew, 138 were killed in the attack or later died on life-rafts. David Woolstencroft was among those killed. He was 20 years old.

Able Seaman Joseph F. Murphy of the Royal New Zealand Navy, who had been taken prisoner following the sinking of HMS Stronghold on 2 March, witnessed the sinking of Yarra from the deck of the Japanese cruiser Maya. He remembered:

Silently we stood and watched that little sloop, white ensign flying and all guns blazing against the hopeless odds ... Hers was a gallant death of which Australia should be very proud.

In 2015, HMAS Yarra (II) was awarded a Unit Citation for Gallantry which reads in part: “for extraordinary gallantry in action off Singapore on 5 February 1942 and in the Indian Ocean on 4 March 1942”.

The then Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral David Griggs accepted the award on behalf of HMAS Yarra (II)’s crew – including David Woolstencroft – and their surviving family members. As part of his acceptance speech he noted that “collective gallantry is the most prized achievement in [the] Navy. A ship’s crew are all one company. They [go] to sea together, go into action together and, we pray, they come home together.”

Sadly this was not to be the fate of Yarra.

The names of those crew of the Yarra who died during this encounter are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain, which is dedicated to the thousands of British and Commonwealth sailors who lost their lives at sea or who have no known grave.

Woolstencroft was first reported missing, and his death was not officially confirmed until December. This was not the only tragedy to strike the Woolstencroft family during the war. In March 1945 David’s brother Bernard, a pilot in Bomber Command, was killed during an operation over Germany.

David Woolstencroft’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others 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 Supply Assistant David John Woolstencroft, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section