The picture shows my uncle John Gorey in naval uniform, wearing a cap of HMAS Shropshire.
I knew Uncle John had served in the navy, including in the Korean War, but I didn’t know about the ships.
The internet is good for researching things like that. John died in 1997 and I only ever met him a handful of times.
According to the government’s nominal roll of Korean War veterans, John served on HMAS Tobruk and HMAS Sydney.
I’ll look up those ships later, but today I’ll focus on HMAS Shropshire.
I think Shropshire may have been his first ship, because she was placed in permanent reserve in 1947.
The ship was launched as HMS Shropshire on July 5, 1928 by the Countess of Powis, Baroness D’Arcy de Knayth and served with the British Mediterranean Fleet until the outbreak of war in September 1939.
Shropshire was ordered to take up patrol in the South Atlantic and for the next four months she was almost continuously at sea on trade protection duties.
In 1941 the cruiser operated against Italian Somaliland, bombarding Mogadishu and Kismaya during the advance of the South African Army from Kenya to Abyssinia.
A refit back in Britain was followed by more patrol and escort work in the Atlantic.
Following the loss of the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra on August 9, 1942 in the Battle of Savo Island, the British Government approved the transfer of Shropshire to the Royal Australian Navy as a replacement.
She was formally handed over to the RAN on June 25, 1943.
On July 1, the cruiser sailed for Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, where she was visited by King George VI and Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet.
HMAS Shropshire sailed for Australia in August and arrived at Fremantle on September 24. The press came aboard and marvelled at the ship’s cafeteria-style messing, library and recreation room, cinema and shipboard radio station.
On Christmas Eve 1943, as part of the US Seventh Fleet, Shropshire sailed for the invasion of New Britain, where she covered the landings at Arawa and Cape Gloucester.
The ship saw service until the end of the war and was in Tokyo for the official Japanese surrender.
In May 1946 Shropshire left Australia for the United Kingdom, carrying the Australian contingent for the Empire Victory celebrations, returning to Australia in August.
After being placed in reserve, Shropshire spent several years in Sydney Harbour.
On October 9, 1954 she left Sydney in tow of the Dutch tug Oostzee bound for the shipbreakers in Scotland. Shropshire was broken up at Troon and Dalmuir.
Later this week I’ll look at the HMAS Tobruk and HMAS Sydney.
I started this search because I wanted to rediscover a reference I found several years ago that John had served during British nuclear testing at the Monte Bello Islands.
According to Wikipedia:
HMAS Shropshire
Displacement: 9750 tons standard; 13,315 tons full load
Length: 633 ft (193 m)
Beam: 66 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion: Eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers, four shaft Parsons geared turbines, 80,000 shp (60 MN)
Speed: 32 knots (59.3 km/h)
Range: 4715 kilometres (2930 mi) at 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h) knots
Complement: 650 (peace), 820 (war)
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