Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme plaque dedication ceremony

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this morning’s plaque dedication ceremony for the Dominion Yachtsmen’s Scheme.

I acknowledge the original custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and to any other Elders here with us today.

I welcome:

• Australian War Memorial Council member and immediate past Chairman of the Council, Rear Admiral Ken Doolan
• Mr John Perryman, Director of Strategic & Historical Studies, Sea Power Centre
• Wing Commander Jonathan Hough, Military/Air Adviser, British High Commission
• Commander David Marsden, representing the Director General, Australian Navy Cadets and Reserves
• Commodore Jim Dickson

And most importantly we welcome the veterans we honour today and all those who have served our country; those that are still serving; and the families that support them.

Today gives us an opportunity to honour a group of men whose service to our country has been little known.

We will hear stories of remarkable service across all the corners of a world at war. They volunteered for duty in the darkest days of 1940 when the Admiralty called on the Dominions for men to serve in the Royal Navy.

They saw action in some of the most dangerous naval campaigns of the war: the desperate Battle for the Atlantic; vital convoy escort duties as far flung as Malta in the Mediterranean to Murmansk in the Arctic; the D-Day landings and then in the vastness of the South-West Pacific theatre.

They served in all kinds of vessels—corvettes, destroyers, minesweepers, frigates and crusiers; they commanded motor gun boats and landing craft. They served in the most dangerous occupation of rendering mines safe at sea and along the coasts of England.

The plaque we dedicate here today at the Australian War Memorial is a significant step in telling their story, a small band of men from Australia who did us and their service proud, and of whom we are proud.

Welcome.