The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (13497) Chief Petty Officer Louis Nicholas Sampson, HMAS Sydney (II), RAN, 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 (13497) Chief Petty Officer Louis Nicholas Sampson, HMAS Sydney (II), RAN, Second World War.

13497 Chief Petty Officer Louis Nicholas Sampson, HMAS Sydney (II), RAN
KIA 20 November 1941

Today we remember and pay tribute to Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson.

Known to friends and family as “Sam”, Louis Sampson was born on 30 September 1907 in Adelaide, the eldest child of Nicholas and Olive Sampson. As a young boy Louis lived on the family’s small farm at Crystal Brook, near Port Pirie. The family later moved to Gawler, and then Port Adelaide, where Louis and his younger brothers attended Port Adelaide Public School. Louis was working as a newspaper employee when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 3 May 1922. He was 15 years old.

His brothers, Frederick and Wallace, later joined the navy as well.

Louis Sampson joined the boys’ training ship HMAS Tingira, moored in Rose Bay, Sydney. He was here for a year before being transferred to the Supply Branch and becoming a Victualling Boy. He then served in the light cruiser HMAS Brisbane (I).

For the rest of the 1920s, Sampson’s postings alternated between HMAS Cerberus, the navy’s training establishment 70 kilometres south of Melbourne, and the light cruiser HMAS Adelaide. In 1930 he served on the staff of the RAN College at Jarvis Bay, on the New South Wales south coast. When the college was forced to close, he was involved in the transfer of its stores and accounts to Cerberus before being posted to the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra. He was there for about two years before returning to Cerberus.

On 8 January 1935, Sampson married Mary Agnes Murphy at St Michaels Church in Nowra. Over the next three years three children were born to the couple: John, Frances, and Helen.

Sampson returned to Brisbane’s company in 1935 and sailed with the aged cruiser to Britain where it would be scrapped. When Brisbane’s company was paid off in Britain, Sampson and others joined the commissioning company of Sydney. A modified Leander-class light
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cruiser, Sydney was armed with eight 6-inch guns and was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

After a further period at Cerberus and a brief post to the sea-plane tender HMAS Albatross, Sampson returned to Sydney in July 1938.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Sydney was one of several Australian warships sent to the Mediterranean. It demonstrated its fighting prowess sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the battle of Cape Spada on the 19th of July 1940. Returning home to Australia in February 1941, Sydney received a hero’s welcome.

Sampson was an accomplished sketch artist. During Sydney’s visit to Geraldton, Western Australia, in mid-October 1941, he produced a chalk drawing of Sydney which was presented to the sergeants’ mess at the Royal Australian Air Force station. The sketch was captioned “Good luck to the air boys” and was signed by 14 of Sydney’s petty officers, including Sampson.

On 19 November Sydney was steaming back to Fremantle, after escorting 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 which suddenly revealed its true identity as a German raider.

Hoisting its German naval ensign, Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes. The 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 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 but a distant glow on the dark horizon, disappear into the night. By midnight Sydney was gone, lost with all 645 hands, including Sampson.

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He was 34 years old.

Louis Sampson is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on your right, 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 Chief Petty Officer Stores Louis Nicholas Sampson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Karl James
Historian, Military History Unit