The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (20191) Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton, HMAS Perth, Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Second World War

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 (20191) Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton, HMAS Perth, Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Second World War.

20191 Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton, HMAS Perth, Royal Australian Naval Reserve
KIA 1 March 1942
Photograph: P04281.003

Story delivered 30 June 2015

Today we pay tribute to Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton, who was killed on active service with the Royal Australian Navy in 1942.

Born in Millthorpe, New South Wales, on 1 November 1914, Eric Samuel Burton was the son of William Burton and Ann Clara Frances Burton.

In July 1934, aged 19, Burton enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. Before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Burton served on the destroyer HMAS Waterhen, and was a member of the inaugural crew of HMAS Perth when it was commissioned in June 1939. During August 1939, just before the outbreak of war, the Perth represented Australia at the World’s Fair in New York.

Perth spent the first months of the war in the Caribbean and the Pacific, arriving in Australia at the end of March 1940. After patrolling and escort duties in Australian waters, in November 1940 Perth departed for the Mediterranean. There it took part in the in the battle of Cape Matapan and the evacuations of Crete and Greece in April and May 1941. During the course of these actions Perth was badly damaged by enemy bombing. After repairs the cruiser was engaged in operations off the coast of Syria before proceeding to Australia for an extended refit, arriving in Sydney in August.

In February 1942 Perth sailed for the Netherlands East Indies. At the end of the month, among a force of Australian, British, Dutch, and American ships, it fought in the major naval battle for the Java Sea against a formidable Japanese force. Five of the 14 Allied ships that took part in the action were lost. The Perth, alongside the USS Houston, was lucky to survive. Both were able to break off from the engagement and make for Tandjung Priok to refuel.

The following night – 28 February – the Perth and Houston made for the southern coast of Java through the Sunda Strait. En route they engaged with a Japanese invasion force heading for Java. In the ensuing battle for Sunda Strait, after grappling bravely with the enemy, both the heavily outnumbered Perth and the Houston were sunk.

A total of 357 members of Perth’s crew – including Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton – were killed when the ship went down. Of the 320 survivors who became prisoners of the Japanese, 106 died during three and half years of captivity. At war’s end in 1945, only 218 remained alive to return home to Australia. Of Houston’s crew, just over a third survived the sinking.

Burton’s name is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain, which is dedicated to the thousands of British and Commonwealth sailors who lost their lives at sea or who have no known grave.

Just months after Eric Burton was reported missing, his mother and father also received news of his younger brother, Ronald Burton, who had enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. On a bombing raid over Germany, while serving with No. 50 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, Ronald had been killed on 12 June 1942.

The names of Eric Burton and his 356 crewmates are listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 other Australians who died during the Second World War. Burton’s photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Petty Supply Officer Eric Samuel Burton, his brother Sergeant Ronald Burton, and all those Australians who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section