The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (B/2356) Signalman Robert Charles Hammont Dodwell, HMAS Perth, 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 Jennifer Surtees, the story for this day was on (B/2356) Signalman Robert Charles Hammont Dodwell, HMAS Perth, Second World War

B/2356 Signalman Robert Charles Hammont Dodwell, HMAS Perth
KIA 1 March 1942
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 27 February 2015

Today we remember Signalman Robert Charles Hammont Dodwell, who was killed while serving in the light cruiser HMAS Perth during the Second World War.

Robert Dodwell was born on 3 September 1920 in Brisbane. He was the only son of Robert H. and Ethel Dodwell. The couple also had two daughters. Robert H. Dodwell had been a commissioned officer in the colonial Queensland Rifles and subsequently took up a position in the Ordnance Department with the honorary rank of captain. The family lived in Yeronga, a southern Brisbane suburb, where young Robert attended Brisbane Grammar School. His father died in late January 1939.

On his 19th birthday – 3 September 1939, the day war was declared – Dodwell enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. He was 168 centimetres tall, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a fair completion. He was briefly posted to the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra with the rating of ordinary signalman.

That October Dodwell was posted to HMAS Cerberus, the navy’s training establishment on Western Port Bay in Victoria. He was posted to Westralia at the end of November and in late January 1940 was promoted to signalman.

Following the start of the war, Westralia was requisitioned into the navy as an armed merchant cruiser, and was commissioned HMAS Westralia in mid-January 1940. The ship served in the Indian Ocean for three months before returning to Australian waters in May. Westralia then sailed for Colombo (now Sri Lanka), spending the rest of the year in convoy escort duties. The ship returned to Australia in January 1941, carrying out convoy duties between Australia and New Zealand as well as to Nauru and the Ocean Islands.

In July Dodwell returned to Cerberus. On 7 November he was posted to the light cruiser HMAS Perth. Armed with eight 6-inch guns, the cruiser had returned to Australian waters only a few months earlier, after its successful deployment in the Mediterranean. In late 1941 and early 1942 Perth carried out various patrols and escort duties, visiting New Zealand, New Caledonia, and New Guinea.

In February, with the Japanese rapidly advancing, Perth sailed for Java in the Netherlands East Indies, and at the end of the month participated in the disastrous naval battle of the Java Sea. On 28 February Perth and American cruiser USS Houston engaged a larger Japanese force in the Sunda Strait. Perth expended nearly all of its ammunition in the action before being hit by four torpedoes and sinking at 12:25 am on 1 March. Houston sank soon afterwards.

Just over half of Perth’s 353 officers, ratings, and civilians were killed or drowned in the action, including Dodwell. Of Houston’s company, more than 650 men perished.
The survivors of both ships were rescued by the Japanese but spent the next three and a half years as prisoners of war. Another 106 men from Perth and 79 men from Houston died in captivity as prisoners of the Japanese.

Robert Dodwell was 21 years old when he died. His name is listed on the Roll of Honour to my left, along with the names of some 40,000 other Australians who died fighting in 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 Signalman Robert Charles Hammont Dodwell, and all those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section