The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (S5336) Stoker 3rd Class Robert Stevenson, HMAS Sydney (III), 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 (S5336) Stoker 3rd Class Robert Stevenson, HMAS Sydney (III), Second World War.

S5336 Stoker 3rd Class Robert Stevenson, HMAS Sydney (III)
KIA 20 November 1941

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Stoker 3rd Class Robert Stevenson and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), who were lost after engaging the German surface raider Kormoran in 1941.

Robert Stevenson was born in the Sydney suburb of Erskineville on 15 January 1924, the son of James and Maud Stevenson. His older brother Joseph had been born in December 1919.

Stevenson grew up and went to school in the Kingswood district, but little else is known of his early life.

He joined the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War. Stevenson was called up for full time duty on 31 March 1941 and sent to the navy depot HMAS Rushcutter located in Sydney’s Rushcutter Bay.

At the beginning of May he was posted to HMAS Cerberus, the navy’s training establishment some 70 kilometres south of Melbourne, on Western Port Bay. On 15 September, he was posted to the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (III).

A modified Leander-class light cruiser, Sydney was armed with eight 6-inch guns and was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy. Built in England, the cruiser was commissioned into the navy in 1935.

Following the outbreak of the war, Sydney was one of several Australian warships sent to the Mediterranean, where it had demonstrated its fighting prowess sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the battle of Cape Spada on 19 July 1940. In February 1941 Sydney returned home to Australia, where it received a hero’s welcome.

For much of the year the cruiser was engaged in escort duties that took the cruiser to the Netherlands East Indies, Singapore, Noumea, Auckland and Suva before returning to Western Australian waters.

On 19 November 1941 Sydney was steaming back to Fremantle, having escorted a troopship part of the way to Singapore. At about 4 pm the cruiser spotted a suspicious merchant ship and decided to investigate. By 5:30 pm Sydney had almost drawn alongside the vessel when it suddenly revealed its true identity as a German raider.

Hoisting its German naval ensign, Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes. Its first salvo slammed into Sydney’s bridge. The Australian cruiser returned fire, but the raider’s second and third salvos again hit Sydney’s bridge and amidships. Its three main turrets were soon out of action, but a fourth kept up fast and accurate fire that hit Kormoran’s funnel and engine room. Sydney, in turn, was hit by a torpedo between turrets. Mortally damaged and ablaze, Sydney turned away from the raider, continuing to fight using its secondary armament and torpedoes.

Kormoran was also burning. At 6.25 pm its captain gave the order to abandon ship. As the German sailors evacuated their stricken vessel, they watched the Australian cruiser, now only a distant glow on the dark horizon, disappear into the night. By midnight Sydney was gone, lost with all 645 hands, including Stevenson, who was just 17 years old.

Robert Stevenson is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around more than 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Stoker 3rd Class Robert Stevenson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.


Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section