From a farm hand on the family farm to joining the Navy, having the experience of being on board ship trialling radar before the war, member of crew when Achilles handed over to RNZN, on Leander (sister ship) when she waved off Achilles leaving for Battle of River Platte, at HMS Sultan when Singapore fell to the Japanese and at Lanka when the Japanese attacked the eastern fleet based at Trincomalee Ceylon.
To come through all of this, to be on board a troopship taking him to a Naval Land Base to await passage back home to New Zealand and have the ship he was on torpedoed and sunk by a U-Boat.
My uncle died before I was born so I never met him nor did I know about his life let alone his military service.
I hope that he would be proud of my tribute to him as an acknowledgement and recognition of his life as I am of him.
