Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Letter to Dudley Charles Northam from V E Kennedy
Letter to Dudley Charles Northam from V E Kennedy

Letter to Dudley Charles Northam from V E Kennedy

Date1953
Object numberANMS1472[032]
NameLetter
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 167 × 175 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Anne Marie Ingham and Becky Ingham-Broomfield
DescriptionThe Dudley Charles Northam (1902-1976) collection relates to his naval career during the Second World War when he was an officer with the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Sea-going) [RANR(S)].HistoryAccording to family history information, Dudley Charles Northam was born in Torquay, UK in 1902. The family came to Australia in the early 1900s and settled in Roseville, Sydney. The family had a strong maritime heritage - Dudley's brother William (Bill) after whom Northam Park near George Street, Sydney is named, won an olympic medal in yachting. At the age of 15, Dudley’s father, without consulting him, signed him on as an apprentice on the four masted, square rigged Scottish registered wool and wheat vessel, MOUNT STEWART. A fellow apprentice was Clive Henderson who was later the master of the Sydney pilot vessel CAPTAIN COOK. Northam gained his Master’s ticket after four years in sail and became a member of the ship’s company on vessels of the Union Steamship Co. one of which was the WONGANELLA which was on the Australia-NZ run at the time. He left the sea for some years during which he ran an ice works in North Sydney; a business willed him by his father. During the 1930s Northam had become a officer in the naval reserve and when war broke out in 1939 he was called for service on a minesweeper. Later, he was given his own command of the newly commissioned corvette, the HMAS COOLAC. The rigours of minesweeping in Bass Strait brought on pleurisy and tuberculosis and Northam spent some time recovering his health. After a period at Bodington and then Flinders Naval Depot he was appointed Executive Officer on the WESTRALIA, an Armed Merchant Cruiser then working in the Pacific. Previously, in December 1941, the WESTRALIA was involved in the largest example of mutiny in the history of the Australian navy with 104 men arrested and charged. In 1943 the vessel was converted to a Landing Ship Infantry and then from 1946-1951 a Troop Transport. From material in the collection it appears Northam also served on HMAS DOOMBA and HMAS WARREGO for periods. Northam rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, also called a 'two and a half striper' in the RANR or 'Wavy Navy', the naval reserve. He was awarded a Mention in Despatches and retired from the Navy at war's end. Northam remained a Reserve officer - though shore based due to his ongoing lung problems. The Argus 21 November 1945: MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES Four RAN officers who have served as port directors in New Guinea areas, and Commander Little, who was in charge of the hydrographic work which followed the assault on Balikpapan. have been mentioned in despatches. They are: Lieut - Commander Dudley Charles NORTHAM. RD, RANR (s) (formerly port director of Langemak), of Gordon, Sydney. Acting Lieut-Commander Eric John BARRON, RANR (S) (formerly port director at Lae), of East Fremantle. Acting Lieut-Commander Norman Miller GORDON, RANR (S) (formerly port director at Buna), of Cairns, Queens- land. Commander Frederick Keith BAXTER, RD, RANR (S) (formerly port director at Hollandia), of Williamstown, Victoria. Acting Commander Colin Goyder LITTLE, DSC. RAN (HMAS Warrego), Of Sydney.SignificanceDudley Charles Northam was the commissioning officer and first commanding officer assigned to the Bathurst-class minesweeper HMAS Colac. Colac was built at Mort's Dock and Engineering Co in Sydney, and commissioned into the RAN on 6 January 1942. The minesweeper's first mission was to transport Allied troops to Papua New Guinea in December 1942. This was followed by escort and patrol duties off the Australian coast, as well as between Australia and Papua New Guinea. In April and May 1945, Colac participated in shore bombardment against targets in the Wewak area of Papua New Guinea, including Muschu Island, Kairisu Island, Cape Samier and Wewak. It subsequently deployed to the Solomon Islands and took part in operations to prevent Japanese troops on Choiseul Island from evacuating to Bougainville. Following cessation of hostilities, Colac served as a training ship and later as a tank cleaning vessel. Its final role was as a target, and it was sunk by a torpedo fired by the Oberon-class submarine HMAS Ovens in March 1987.

Northam's other command, HMAS Westralia, began life as a steamer constructed by Scottish shipbuilder Harland and Wolff in 1929. It was acquired by the RAN and converted into an armed merchant cruiser in November 1939. Westralia's time as an armed merchant cruiser was spent escorting convoys from Australia and New Zealand to various locales throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. During one of these missions in December 1941, the ship was the scene of the largest mutiny in RAN history, when 104 crewmen were arrested and charged for failing to report for duty. On 31 May of the following year, Westralia was in Sydney Harbour when three Japanese midget submarines entered and attacked naval vessels, resulting in the loss of the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul and 21 of its crewmen. In early 1943, Westralia was converted into a Landing Ship, Infantry (LSI) and spent the remainder of the war transporting units of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps throughout the Pacific theatre. Northam's command of Westralia commenced during this time (June 1945) and continued until the end of the conflict. Following the cessation of hostilities, Westralia was used to repatriate Australian troops. While being fitted for a return to civilian service, it was taken into the merchant navy service and operated as a transport between Sydney and Kure, Japan for the British Commonwealth Occupying Force. After a year-long deployment as a troop carrier in the Mediterranean, it returned to civilian service in 1950. Westralia was ultimately sold for scrap and broken up in 1961.

HMAS Doomba was buit for the British Royal Navy towards the end of the First World War and launched as the Hunt-class minesweeper HMS Wexford in 1919. After only two years of naval service, HMS Wexford was decommissioned and sold to the Doomba Shipping Company in Queensland, who renamed the vessel and converted it into a passenger ship. Doomba operated in waters around Brisbane until 1939, when it was requisitioned by the RAN and converted into an auxiliary minesweeper and anti-submarine vessel. Northam commenced service aboard HMAS Doomba the following year, and remained with the vessel until May 1941. Doomba was present during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney in the early morning hours of 1 June 1942, and reportedly spotted one of the attacking vessels near Robertsons Point. Ten days later, it rescued the crew of a Panamanian freighter torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the New South Wales coast. Doomba remained in RAN service until 1946, when it was sold and converted into a linseed oil lighter and renamed Meggol. In December 1976, it was scuttled off Dee Why, New South Wales.

Finally, HMAS Warrego (II) was a Grimsby-class sloop built at Cockatoo Island dockyard in 1939-40. It served primarily as a convoy escort, and it was during this period (August-December 1941) that Northam served aboard the vessel. In January 1942 Warrego was briefly assigned to the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command. It was present in Darwin Harbour during the Japanese air raid on 19 February 1942, and despite having a working party over the side, was able to get underway and contribute anti-aircraft fire to Darwin's defence. It later escorted its damaged sister-ship HMAS Swan through Clarence Strait and assumed anti-submarine patrols at the entrance to Darwin Harbour. Warrego escorted troopships during the Allied campaign in New Guinea, and finished the conflict as a participant in the Allied invasion of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, and landing of Australian troops in Borneo in 1945. It spent most of its post-war service conducting surveys in Australian waters and was decommissioned in 1963. In 1965, Warrego was sold for scrap and broken up at Rozelle the following year.