Info: Australian? Allied Unit, Deck Boy, David Abbott, H.M.A.H.S. Centaur, Australian Merchant Navy

Any information would be appreciated.



Need assistance on Who/Where/What/How for this man who is on the Australian Commemorative Roll which is for those "Australians" who died in other Allied Services. If proved not to be "Australian" their names will not be removed from the Commemorative Roll however their details will be updated accordingly.

I have researched the Air Force members but there are many more Land and Sea deaths in a myriad of different forces.

There is not a lot of information on these people that can be accessed easily and I ask your assistance to fill in at least some of the gaps.

Hopefully some relatives may see this thread and add more.

I will make a different thread for each along the way as they may tend to get lost if clumped together.

In Memory of
Deck Boy DAVID ABBOTT

H.M.A.H.S. Centaur, Australian Merchant Navy
who died age 16
on 14 May 1943
Son of Sydney Charles Bertram and Isabel Beryl Abbott, of Camberwell, Victoria.
Remembered with honour
SYDNEY MEMORIAL



Commemorative Roll - David Abbott

Rank: Deck Boy
Unit: Australian Hospital Ship Centaur
Service: Merchant Navy
Conflict: 1939-1945
Date of death: 14 May 1943
Place of death: At sea, off Brisbane, Queensland
Cause of death: Killed in action
Cemetery or memorial details: Sydney Memorial, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, New South Wales




22nd May 1943

ABBOTT.-A - tribute to the memory of David Abbott, of HS. Centaur.< (Inserted by his cousin. Robert-Bill-Abbott.)


ABBOTT, In loving memory of David Abbott, of H.S Centaur, loved nephew of Edith and Arthur Abbott


Monday 14th May 1945

ABBOTT. - In proud and loving memory of our friend, David. H.S.Centaur. (R. and E. McGrath, Alison, and Ian.)


ABBOTT. - In loving memory of David, H.S. Centaur. -A mate never forgotten.


Worst Tragedy on Australian Coast


The sinking of the hospital ship is the worst shipping tragedy that has occurred on the Australian coast, and the death roll probably exceeds the total of lives lost In all other strikings in Australian waters since the
outbreak of war.
It is known that 18 doctors, 11, nurses and 193 other medical personnel are missing.
There was no chance to send out a wireless S.O.S. and no time to launch the lifeboats. Many of the boats were destroyed in the explosion.
Many persons lost their lives trying to release rafts.
During the Allied raids on Rabaul harbour pilots observed a Japanese hospital ship, of approximately 15,000 tons, but they refrained from dropping bombs although targets were in close proximity, so that the hospital ship would not have been endangered.
The captain of the Centaur, G. H. Murray, of Aberdeen, Is among the missing.


Official Account of Sinking


Details of the shocking brutality of the crew of the Japanese submarine were tersely given in a communique issued yesterday from General Mac Arthur's headquarters. The communique read:
"At 4.10 a.m.on May 14, an enemy submarine torpedoed and sank without warning, the Australian hospital ship Centaur, 40 miles east of Brisbane, while en route from Sydney to New Guinea. The vessel was traveling unescorted. It was fully illuminated and marked with the Red Cross, as well as complying with all the provisions of the international law governing hospital ships. In time of war.


"The weather was clear and visibility excellent. The vessel capsized and sank within three minutes after being hit. Of 352 members of the crew and medical staff and nurses on board, 64 were rescued. The remainder were lost.
"The survivors saw an enemy submarine, which surfaced shortly after
the attack."


CANBERRA MAN AMONG RESCUED
Mr. Percy Kelly, of Grant Crescent, Griffith, was one of the survivors of the Centaur.
Mrs. Kelly stated yesterday that she had received a telegram yester- day morning that her husband had been rescued and was in hospital suf- fering from shock and exposure.
Mrs. Kelly said that she was thankful that he had been rescued. Her husband was an orderly on the vessel and had a large circle of friends in Canberra where he had worked for many years.


Missing


The following is a list of military officers and nurses reported lost:
NEW SOUTH WALES

Major J. H. Sender.

Major G. Cooley.

Major L. Holland.
Tempy-Major D. R. Jones.

Capt. B. F. Hindmarsh.

Capt. L. L. Bedkover.

Capt. B. D. Foley.
Capt. R. Johnston.
Lieut. L. L. Chadwick.

Lieut. M. E. Wheeler.
Lieut. S. B. Westhorp.

Lieut. R. W. Miles.

Sister H. Maultain.

Sister M. Mostyn.
Sister D. J. Wyllie.

Sister E. King,
Sister A. E. Shaw.


VICTORIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND QUEENSLAND



Lt.-Col. C..P. Manson.

Capt. G. L. Thomas.
Lieut. A. E. Johnson.
Chaplain-Captain E. V. Laverick.

Matron S. A. Jewell.

Sister M. L. Adams.
Sister A. M. O'Donnell.
Sister E. M. Rutherford.

Sister W. Walker.
Sister M. H. McFarland.
Mr. W. S. Clark, Red Cross representative.



From:
Scotch College > Great Scot > May 2010 > David Abbott died aged 16 in World War II

David Abbott died aged 16 in World War II

HM Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine in World War II on 14 May 1943 off the Queensland coast near Caloundra. Only in the last few months has the sunken vessel been located.
One of the dead there is an Old Scotch Collegian, (Melbourne) David Abbott (‘41). He was the youngest "Old Boy" to die in the war, aged only 16.
Friends at Scotch who recall him, such as Peter Crow, John Duncan and Bill McDonald, remember David as skinny, tall (at 16 he was nearly six feet – 1.83m – high), and well developed for his age. In class he was quiet but successful. He was not a sportsman, but was into girls and home hobbies. He made his own kites, and had a Hornsby train. He was ‘a good bloke’.
David’s father, Sydney Bertram Abbott, was manager at Felt and Textiles in Footscray, then when the war broke out he went into the army as a colonel and manager at the ordnance factory at Maribyrnong. The family meanwhile had moved to Camberwell while David was at school.
He left school early to enter the merchant navy, which admitted people younger than did the Royal Australian Navy. He joined up over the objections of his parents, who were alarmed that an elder brother had already had several ships sunk under him. So when David became a deck boy on a hospital ship his mother was pleased that he would be safe there, and encouraged him to stay.
We have no photograph of him, but industrious readers of this article are welcome to sleuth. In the merchant navy he might well have been obliged to have a passport, so there might be records of this. His eyesight (at least) would have been tested, so there may be records of this in the files of the Marine branch of the Commonwealth Department of Commerce.
MV Centaur had been a cattle tramp steamer. After the Japanese invaded New Guinea there was an urgent need for a small hospital ship with a shallow draught. Centaur was converted into a vessel of mercy capable of carrying 280 cot cases.
She sailed into the war zone carrying Australian and American medical personnel to Port Moresby. She returned to Brisbane with wounded Australian and American soldiers and a small number of injured Japanese prisoners-of-war.
Heading north again, Centaur carried the 2/12th Field Ambulance. At 4.10 am on Friday 14 May 1943, though marked as a hospital ship, she was struck amidships on the port side by a torpedo fired from Japanese submarine I-177.