The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (WR/37) Petty Officer Cook Maude Veronica Hebson, HMAS Penguin, WRANS, 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 Meleah Hampton, the story for this day was on (WR/37) Petty Officer Cook Maude Veronica Hebson, HMAS Penguin, WRANS, Second World War.

WR/37 Petty Officer Cook Maude Veronica Hebson, HMAS Penguin, WRANS
Illness 27 December 1943
Photograph P01132.004

Today we remember and pay tribute to Petty Officer Cook Maude Veronica Hebson WRAN.

Maude Wilson was born in York in the north of England on 5 September 1903, the daughter of George and Alice Wilson.
Little is known about her early life. She came to live in Australia, and in 1932 married Stanley Hebson in Sydney. Stanley worked as a cook, had served in the Merchant Navy, and went on to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War. He saw periods of service as a cook in squadrons number 450, 454 and 458.

Maude would also serve during the Second World War, becoming an early enlistee in the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service, the WRANs.

The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service was formed in April 1941, when 14 members of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps – 12 telegraphists and two cooks – were recruited to work at the Royal Australian Navy Wireless and Transmitting Station Harman near Canberra. On 1 July 1943 this station was commissioned HMAS Harman.

The signalling corps had been established before the war by Florence McKenzie, Australia's first female electrical engineer and a tireless promoter of technical education for women. “Mrs Mac”, as she was fondly known, had foreseen military demand for wireless communication, and began privately training women as telegraphists.

McKenzie campaigned tirelessly to have her graduates accepted into the Navy, and resistance fell away with the increasing demand for manpower in the Pacific War. By the end of 1942 over 1,000 women had enlisted in the WRANs. This number tripled during the course of the war, with WRANs working as telegraphists, clerks, drivers, stewards, cooks, sick berth attendants, and in technical areas such as intelligence and cryptanalysis.

Maude was an early enlistee, joining on 17 December 1941, with the service number WR37.

Throughout 1942, she served as an attendant at Harman and then HMAS Penguin, a naval depot on Sydney Harbour where HMAS Kuttabul stands today.

Having been promoted to leading attendant, by the beginning of 1943 she was working as a cook at HMAS Kuttabul and Harman.

By September she had been promoted Petty Officer Cook WRAN, however, around that time, she fell ill. After three months of illness, she died at 3 Australian Women’s Hospital in Sydney on 27 December 1943. The cause of death was given as malignant hypertension, or high blood pressure.

She was 40 years old.

Maude Hebson was buried at Rookwood War Cemetery in Sydney with a funeral featuring full naval honours. Today, her remains lie under the epitaph, “Her duty nobly done. Ever remembered”.

Her name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving 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 Petty Officer Cook Maude Veronica Hebson, who gave her life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section