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Thomas Clark

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Thomas Welsby Clark was a Royal Australian Navy sailor who was killed during the battle between the HMAS Sydney and the Kormoran on 19 November 1941.

His body was discovered floating off Christmas Island on 6 February 1942 and was identified in November 2021.

Background[]

Thomas Clark was born on 28 January 1920 in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm, Queensland, to James Colin Clark and Marion Clark. James worked as a grazier, and his grandfather, James Clark, was one of the wealthiest men in Queensland, having amassed his wealth through years of hard work and wise business investments in the pearling industry. Marion was a descendant of Scottish immigrants who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s.

Thomas, the third son of James and Marion, attended Slade School in Warwick, Queensland, and spent time working at family properties and their Brisbane oyster leases. He was described as an excellent swimmer and a keen yachtsman. After school, he became an accountant in Brisbane for a short time.

On 14 March 1939, Thomas enlisted in the Militia Army Reserve as a private in the Queensland Cameron Highlanders. On 19 August 1940, he was discharged and then joined the Royal Australian Navy on the same date. By then, his older brothers, Arthur and James, served in the Army and Air Force, respectively. Thomas completed anti-submarine training school as a Submarine Detector at HMAS Rushcutter in Sydney, New South Wales, and then served as an Ordinary Seaman on the anti-submarine training ship HMAS St Giles.

On 15 July 1941, Thomas was promoted to Acting Able Seaman before completing training at HMAS Cerberus, the RAN's premier training depot in Victoria, during July-August 1941. After training, he joined the light cruiser HMAS Sydney, which was tasked with conducting patrols and escorting troopships in southern Australian waters and at the Western Australian coast starting in September 1941.

On the afternoon of 19 November 1941, the HMAS Sydney sighted a merchant ship some 200 kilometers west of Shark Bay, Western Australia. The merchant ship stated it was the Dutch steamer Straat Malakka, but she was actually the disguised and heavily armed German merchant raider Kormoran, which had already sunk ten unsuspecting merchant ships in the Indian Ocean.

When the Kormoran failed to allot Straat Malakka's secret call sign, its captain, Theodor Detmers, ordered his men to open fire on the HMAS Sydney. In the battle, both ships were mortally damaged. All 645 members of the HMAS Sydney, including Thomas, and 82 members of the Kormoran were killed, and the remaining German sailors were captured. Both sunken ships were relocated in 2008.

Discovery[]

During the late afternoon of 6 February 1942, lookouts on Christmas Island found an object out at sea. Initially thought to be a Japanese submarine, a pilot boat's closer inspection discovered it was actually a life raft with a body in it, and it was then towed ashore. The body was found partially decomposed, and his eyes, nose, and the flesh on his right arm were missing, presumably due to being eaten by birds and fish.

The life raft was a naval Carley float. Its wooden decking was manufactured and branded with the word "PATENT" while the metal framework was branded "LYSAGHT DUA-ANNEAL ZINC. MADE IN AUSTRALIA" inside. The float was damaged by gun or shellfire, with shrapnel embedded in the outer covering. The underside was covered with barnacles and other marine growth, suggesting the float was at sea for some time. A preliminary examination was conducted by Dr. J. Scott Clark, the island's medical officer, the Harbourmaster Captain J.R. Smith, and J.C. Baker, the man in charge of the radio station.  

They determined some of the characteristics of the victim and noted what he was wearing, but they found no dog tags or personal items. They wrote reports on their findings, but the preliminary examination was not completed because they had to evacuate the island on 17 February 1942 due to the invasion risk from the Japanese. It is not known if Dr. Clark performed an autopsy on the body, and if he did, it was never found. Meanwhile, the victim was buried at the Old European Cemetery. When the Japanese invaded the island on 23 March 1942, the reports were destroyed. The Japanese would control the island until 1945. 

Further investigations[]

On 23 April 1949, the Director of Naval Intelligence wrote to the Director of Victualling about whether the clothing and the Carley float found with the body were from the HMAS Sydney. The Director of Victualling did respond that some of the clothing, particularly the shoes, was RAN-issued, but the boiler suits with press studs "had never been adopted" by the RAN. RAN officers purchased their own boiler suits, which were white or brown with press studs, suggesting the victim could be an officer. A reply on the Carley float was never recorded. Until the 1998 Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, the RAN denied a connection between the Carley float and those used by Australian warships.

Between August and September 2001, the RAN attempted to locate the victim's grave but were unsuccessful. A second attempt in October 2006 found the victim's grave. The coffin was found to be unusually shaped, with the body buried with legs doubled under at the knee, which was the same position he was found, possibly due to mummification.

After he was exhumed, it was determined he was killed when he suffered brain trauma from a shell fragment of German origin before falling backwards on the float. In a 2006 autopsy, shrapnel that struck the front of the skull and lodged in the left forehead was found. In addition to this injury, the pathologist identified a second major skull injury, with bone loss on the left side of the skull, above and behind the left ear hole, which is also believed to have occurred around the time of death. His ribs were found to be broken, but whether this occurred when he was killed or after death with the burial is not known.

The victim was reburied in the Commonwealth War Graves section in the Geraldton Cemetery on 19 November 2008, with full military honors. 

In 2009, his DNA was developed for comparison with his next of kin, and as of 2014, his identity was narrowed down to 50 sailors. His mtDNA belonged to an ancient female line of descent, known as haplogroup J1c12. Isotope analysis on his bones determined that he lived in eastern Australia, or possibly in NSW or Queensland, before enlistment and may have grown up on the coast. 

In 2019, it was erroneously reported by multiple Australian media outlets that the victim may have been Petty Officer Norman Douglas Foster, who would have been 28 years old when he was killed on the HMAS Sydney. DNA testing would prove that the victim was not Foster, and Foster's remains are yet to be recovered and identified.

Identification[]

On 19 November 2021, on the 80th anniversary of the battle, it was announced at the Australian War Memorial that the victim was identified as Thomas Welsby Clark. Andrew Gee, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, stated Thomas is believed to be the only member of HMAS Sydney's crew who was able to reach a life raft after the cruiser sank.

Characteristics[]

  • Right-handed.
  • Size 11 feet. 
  • Being 5'6" to 6'1" was considered very tall for his generation.
  • Squatting facets, an unusual feature in both ankle joints. Because squatting in a western urban community is unusual, it's believed he either lived in a rural area of Australia, was part of an ethnic group such as Eastern Europeans or Asians where squatting is more common or was involved in a sporting or similar activity that required the ankles to be flexed towards the back of the thighs for prolonged periods.
  • A partial DNA analysis suggested he had red hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. 

Clothing []

  • White boiler suit with four plain press studs from neck to waist. Press studs were of a type manufactured by Carr Australia Pty Ltd in the 1930s and 1940s. 
  • A shoe, which according to Dr. Clark was "probably branded "CROWN BRAND PTY 4", but he later admitted he was not sure about the "CROWN" and "4" parts. Captain Smith recalled a canvas shoe of a brand named "McCOWAN PTY" or "McEWAN PTY", which carried symbols representing a crown and/or a broad arrow. However, a sergeant who participated in the raft recovery contradicted them, saying there was no shoe, but a pair of boots instead. 

Sources[]

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