The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (21751) Leading Stoker Campbell Bernard Hill, HMAS Nestor, Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2018.1.1.120
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 30 April 2018
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 (21751) Leading Stoker Campbell Bernard Hill, HMAS Nestor, Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

21751 Leading Stoker Campbell Bernard Hill, HMAS Nestor
KIA 15 June 1942
Story delivered 30 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Leading Stoker Campbell Bernard Hill.

Campbell Hill, known as “Cam”, was born on 11 November 1917 in East Coolgardie, Western Australia, the only child of Charles and Emily Hill. The family moved to West Leederville when Hill was a boy and he attended the local school.

On 6 January 1938, less than two months after his 21st birthday, Hill joined the Royal Australian Navy. He was sent to HMAS Cerberus where he underwent his initial training as a ship’s stoker. In late May, he was posted to HMAS Albatross, which was in the process of being transferred to the Royal Navy. Hill was part of the crew that sailed Albatross to England in July.

Once in England, Hill formed part of the inaugural crew of HMAS Hobart when it was commissioned into the RAN on 28 September 1938. The ship sailed for Australia shortly after.

When the Second World War began in September 1939, Hobart initially conducted patrols of Bass Strait before sailing to Singapore the following month. The ship spent the following months on patrols and convoy escort duties.

In April 1940 Hobart became one of the core vessels in the Royal Navy’s Red Sea Force. The ship fired its first shots in anger on the 12th of June, when Italian aircraft attacked Aden. After serving during the British Somaliland campaign, Hobart and her crew returned to Colombo for a refit before sailing for Australia. Hobart remained in Australian and New Zealand waters until June 1941, when the ship was transferred back to the Mediterranean.

From July until December, Hobart was part of the Royal Navy’s 7th Cruiser Squadron and took part in shore bombardments at Bardia and Tobruk, and in operations off Cyprus, Malta, and Syria. Throughout this period, Hobart was subjected to heavy air attacks, but suffered no major damage.

On 8 December, news of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and Malaya was received. The same day Hill was promoted to acting leading stoker. Two days later he was transferred to HMAS Napier.

In January 1942, Napier and sister ships Nizam and Nestor were tasked with escorting a Royal Navy aircraft carrier ferrying aircraft to Malaya. After completing this operation, the three N Class ships sailed for Colombo, where they joined the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet. Here, on 11 February, Hill was promoted to leading stoker and transferred to HMAS Nestor.

After a brief period of escort duty in late March and early April, Nestor sailed to Zanzibar before sailing on to the Mediterranean. In June, Nestor was part of the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, tasked to be part of a large escort for a convoy of 11 transport ships taking supplies to the besieged island of Malta. Soon after leaving Haifa, the convoy came under attack from German and Italian aircraft.

In the afternoon of 15 June, news was received that another transport convoy, this one approaching from the west, had reached Malta. With the severity of the enemy air attacks and the presence of the Italian fleet, it was decided the Nestor’s convoy should return to Alexandria.

At around 6 pm the convoy, located south-west of Crete, came under air attack. A stick of bombs from an Italian bomber straddled Nestor. The explosions severely damaged the ship’s boiler rooms, killing three Australian sailors and one British sailor. One of those killed was Campbell Hill. He was 24 years old.

HMS Javelin took the stricken destroyer in tow, but early the following morning, with Nestor taking on water and going down at the bow, it was decided to scuttle the ship. The crew transferred to Javelin, after which at around 7 am, Nestor was sunk by a depth charge. With the sea as their final resting place, Hill and his three crewmates are now commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Devon, England.

At some point during his service, Hill had become engaged to Miss Betty Waddington. A sorrowful entry in the local paper recorded her love: “Forever I’ll remember.”

Campbell Hill’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 service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Leading Stoker Campbell Bernard Hill, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section

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