F3781 Francis Stanley Terry as a cook; minesweeper HMAS Mercedes and corvette HMAS Warrnambool; Australian western approaches and northern and eastern waters; 1941-1946; interviewed by John Roberts

Frank Terry speaks about his childhood and education; his recruitment into the RAN; reception, kitting out and basic training at the Flinders Naval Depot; training a cook; life aboard HMAS Mercedes; minesweeping operations in the western approaches to Fremantle; his working routine as a cook when at sea; the voyage to Darwin; compassionate leave after the death of his son; transfer to the Boom Depot at Fremantle; his marriage and the premature birth and eventual death of his first child; the Boom Depot routine; being drafted to Darwin to join the Warrnambool in May 1945; refit at Fremantle and return to Darwin; the surrender of the Japanese in Timor at Koepang and other operations around Timor; transit of the Warrnambool to Sydney to join the 20th Minesweeping Fleet; operations out of Sydney and Wollongong; Christmas 1946 aboard the Warrnambool; demobilization in Fremantle in June 1946; post war employment as a cook, trolley bus conductor and in the liquor trade; his final twenty years employment at the Hollywood Repatriation Hospital, ending up as head chef; health problems; housing, and award of the British Empire Medal.

Part of a collection of nineteen oral history interviews conducted by the Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Association of Western Australia. Interviewers included John Roberts, Margaret Rickard, Lorna Dodd, William Gray Ritchie and Jack Shepheard.