Ships Bell, Australian Army ship CRUSADER (AV 2767)
AV CRUSADER was a shallow draft heavy lift support ship launched late in 1945, too late to participate in WW2. She was used to return Australian Army equipment from the islands of New Guinea and then transport earth moving equipment and timber between Tasmania and the mainland. In 1947 AV CRUSADER was sold to the Queensland Cement and Lime Company and renamed CEMNTCO serving on the Brisbane River as a coral barge until being scuttled in 1986 to become a popular diving wreck. Click here for further information.
Collection – Maurice Avery Williams – (AHS Centaur)
Maurice Williams, an Innisfail Ambulance Bearer with 20 years’ experience, enlisted in the Militia on the 2nd of Aril 1941 as a maturer aged enlistee because of his ambulance experience. He had several postings around Brisbane including employment as an ambulance trainer, gaining promotion to lance Sergeant and employment as the Regimental Aid Post (RAP) Sergeant, 2nd Camp Hospital, Chermside military camp. Maurice takes his discharge from the Milita and on the 30th of September 1942 and enlists in the AIF gaining promoted to Seargeant. In April 1943 Maurice is posted to the Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur and takes a reduction in rank to Corporal to be eligible for employment with the ships staff as all Sergeant positions on the ships staff have been filled. Maurice perishes when the AHS Centaur is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine to the East of Moreton Island, 14 May 1943 while on its first voyage from Sydney to Papua New Guinea to deliver Field Ambulance Soldiers and repatriate wounded. Click here to read more about Maurice Avery Williams story.
Donated by: Arnold and Moreen Williams