The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (W1588) Stoker Leslie Walter Keith Mainsbridge, HMAS Goorangai, RAN, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (W1588) Stoker Leslie Walter Keith Mainsbridge, HMAS Goorangai, RAN, Second World War.

W1588 Stoker Leslie Walter Keith Mainsbridge, HMAS Goorangai, RAN
Killed in accident, 20 November 1940
Story delivered on 28 March 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Stoker Leslie Walter Keith Mainsbridge of the Royal Australian Navy.

Leslie Mainsbridge was born on 12 June 1920 in East Prahan, Melbourne, to Walter and Ruby Mainsbridge. Unmarried and working as a painter when war broke out in 1939, he was also a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, reporting for active duty in June 1940.

Mainsbridge was posted to the HMAS Goorangai. The vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when war started was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping.

In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession to German minelaying operations in Bass Strait. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mine fields. Following the operation, the minesweeper returned to Queenscliff. But a rising storm sent the ship to Portsea, which was a safer harbour.

As the Goorangai passed through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay in the darkness, she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in halves. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: “In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge, the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water.” In that short moment in between, some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness, and lifeboats deployed immediately, but, despite a long search, no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. The body of Leslie Mainsbridge was the third to be found. He was 20 years old. The remaining bodies were never recovered, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

Leslie Mainsbridge’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Stoker Leslie Walter Keith Mainsbridge, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section