French Family

Jim and Jill French were married at St Thomas' Church, Rozelle in 1969. They had both grown up in Rozelle and both attended Rozelle Primary School. Jim's family had come to Australia from Scotland in 1927 and were involved with large fishing trawlers with Cam & Sons. Jim's Grandfather had sailed a steam trawler from the fishing village of Buckie, Scotland in 1927. Jill French, (nee Hancock) was the eldest daughter of Peggy and Jack Hancock who had a trucking business in Balmain and provided transport services for the local Sydney Wharves and the local breweries. 

Jim's Grandfather, Captain William Reid had served in the British Merchant Navy in the North Sea, off Scotland in the First World War. He was a highly experienced Skipper and disaster struck off the South Coast town of Moruya on the night of 4 August 1942.

Shelled Trawler Reaches Port.  A British trawler of 200 tons, recently shelled at point-blank range 17 miles off the east coast of Australia, has reached an Australian port. Two of her crew of 12 were killed, and four wounded in the attack.  

Swept By Machine-Guns -  The submarine surfaced in bright moonlight, and attacked with shells and machine-gun fire. Men on the trawler sought shelter behind the steel sides of the ship, but the shells cut through the metal.  When the submarine approached within 50 yards the trawler's captain, William Reid, ran to the bridge and shouted that the vessel was "only a  helpless fishing craft." 

The Japanese immediately reopened  fire, and a shell carried most of the  bridge away just as Reid had regained the deck. The two men killed were hit by a shell and machine-gun bullets as they attempted to get the lifeboat into the water. Their bodies were riddled again as they lay on deck. The trawler was struck by 12 shells. The attack was seen from a fishing town, and N.E.S. officials summoned  aid for the trawler's crew.   

Members, of the crew: —  DEAD  Alexander McPherson, of New Zealand;  Arthur Stoble, of Cardiff.  SERIOUSLY INJURED  Alexander Thomas Reid, mate, of Station Street, Mortdale.  

WOUNDED. ADMITTED TO  HOSPITAL:  George Reid, chief engineer;  Frank Temple, fireman, of Pyrmont;  Lawrence Wilson, radio operator, of Sydney.  

TREATED FOR SHOCK  Capt. William Reid, of Burns Street, Rozelle. William Miller, cook, of 358, Victoria  Street, Darlinghurst.  William Bray. John Gunderson, 2 Ann Street, Surry Hills. Jack Reid, 40, engineer, Marlborough  Street, Drummoyne. Theodore Anderson.  

Eight of the survivors will return to Sydney today. Captain W. Reid (55) is married, and has two sons and two daughters. Both sons are in the Army. The first engineer, George Reid (43), is a brother of the skipper. He has a daughter and a son in the Navy. The mate, Alexander Reid (46), also  a brother of the skipper, is married, and has one son. The second engineer, Jack Reid (40),  is a cousin of the skipper. He is married, and has two children. 

Jack Reid said: "We were shelled  and machine-gunned for nearly an hour. It is a wonder that any of us  are alive. "We had just brought in the nets and I was getting Into my bunk when  the submarine attacked. "The sea was choppy, but there was  a moon at intervals and we could see  the big submarine. "Shells and bullets came so fast that they seemed to be chasing one another.  

"We tried to launch the boat, and  the Japs fired at us all the time.' /  "The lifeboat was soon so full of holes that it sank when it hit the water. "The Japs fired whenever we moved, but we made several attempts to  launch the big raft.  "The firing would die down while we hid under cover, but as soon as we  ran to the raft there would be another hail of bullets. "The raft was too heavy and we had to give up trying to launch it. "Two men who had jumped into the water for protection swam around the ship, but the submarine circled round the trawler, and they were under fire as often as not."  

William Miller said: "We had nothing  to fight back with, and it was just plain murder. "When the second shot broke the steam pipe we had no chance of escaping. "The Japs gave us no time to  launch the boat, though they must have known we were helpless."  

Glass and Wire Used In Shells  Another member of the crew said:  "The ship was taking heavy seas. The  decks and fittings were drenched, otherwise the trawler would have caught fire, and we would all have  lost our lives." One man said that the submarine was about, 300ft. long, and was obviously capable of travelling thousands of miles.  Another member of the crew said that the submarine must have used glass and wire in shrapnel shells. Broken glass, which, he said, was not wreckage of the ship, lay about  the decks, and one Injured man had  a piece of wire in a wound. A police sergeant with a constable and a fisherman went out from the fishing town through rough seas in a  22ft. launch, but were driven back when within three miles of the trawler.  

They turned back when they saw a  second trawler rescuing men from the helpless ship.  When the rescue ship reached the  wharf, N.E.S. workers were waiting with stretcher parties and first-aid  groups. The organiser of the N.E.S. first-aid  squad, gave a graphic eye-witness account of the attack. "Terrific shellfire shook the whole town," she said. "I saw flashes from the submarine's 4in. guns 'lighting up the sky as it poured shell after shell into the defenceless trawler.  

"We mobilised the first-aid stretcher and ambulance party of 14 and rushed to the wharf. "Then the gunfire ceased and the submarine submerged.  "Men went out to the rescue in a small trawler. "Another fisherman also put out to his boat, but was forced back by the  heavy seas.  "The rescuers had a terrible time trying to keep alongside the shelled trawler, but finally got the crew on board.  "I shall never forget the sight as the rescue ship reached the wharf. "The wounded were to a pitiable condition.  

"They were treated by a doctor and members of our first-aid party. "One of the crew had been killed by a direct hit from a shell and another riddled with hundreds of bullets from a machine-gun. "The body of one of the wounded officers was like a colander with  shrapnel wounds.  "Three other men suffered terrible shrapnel and lead pellet wounds." The N.E.S. organiser said that some of the crew told her that it was impossible to lower the ship's life boat as it was holed with hundreds of machine-gun bullets.  

Source - Front page - Daily Telegraph, August 5, 1942.

Telling his story while maintaining  Vigil by the bedside of his badly  wounded brother, Alexander, Captain  William Reid, master of an unarmed trawler, which was attacked off the Australian East Coast by a Japanese submarine, declared ; "If we had only a six pounder we would have fought until we died, but Lord, we don't like murder."  

Captain Reid added that he had seen some submarines during his career but the one which attacked them was the biggest of them all.  "As I saw it come along I dived  into my room. It had port holes on each side and as I dragged off my heavy clothes I was watching the enemy craft. The shelling started and soon one side of the wheelhouse immediately over my room was  wrecked and the funnel was gone. 

Wreckage came down into my room, blocking exit, and I had to struggle free." Describing the death of Archie McPherson, who was killed on deck, Captain Reid said he yelled out to him that he was on the wrong side McPherson replied ; "It doesn't matter skipper, he's got me here.'  

Captain Reid said the Japanese fired 8 to 12 shells and machine, gunned them nine times, finishing the attack with a burst of shell fire. After almost an hour the submarine vanished and shortly after they heard the noise of planes.

Source - Daily Telegraph, August 6, 1942.

VICTIM OF JAP SUBMARINE.  SYDNEY, Thursday. — Alexander  Reid, mate of the trawler which was shelled off the east coast of Australia  by a Japanese submarine died in hospital. He was the third victim of the attack. Alexander Reid was a brother of the master of the vessel, Captain William Reid.

The  strange thing about this attack was  that there seemed to be no intention  on the part of the Japanese to sink the Dureenbee. All shots were fired  at the above-water structure. The submarine, keeping up a barrage of fire, began to circle the Dureenbee and fired another eight  four-inch shells into her. After a further 45 minutes' target practice the Jap vessel submerged, resurfaced six minutes later and then headed out to sea. With the Japs' final disappearance Captain Reid set about sending up flares in the hope of attracting some help. 

On checking his crew he found one member dead  and two seriously wounded, and the  remaining men, who had sought  shelter behind machinery, suffering  only minor injuries.  At 6.20am, approximately 4½  hours later, an aircraft from No 11  Squadron, RAAF, stationed at  Moruya Heads, located the Dureenbee and then led a rescue vessel to her. The rescue vessel was a local trawler, the Mirrabooka (meaning  Southern Cross) owned by brothers  Raynor and Gus McDiarmid and a friend, Cecil Williams. The Volunteer Defence Corp asked these men  to ready their trawler for sea once word had been received that the action was directly eastwards of Moruya.  

Approximately 2.30 am the Mirrabooka, with lights ablaze to alert  survivors of her presence, left  Moruya. After searching for some  time, and finally with the aid of the aircraft from No 11 Squadron, the  Dureenbee was located. Upon reaching her, the Mirrabooka manoeuvered into the lee of the crippled  trawler and her crew then set about assisting the Dureenbee's men on board. During the attack the Dureenbee's lifeboat and inflatable raft were destroyed, so a 12ft dinghy  from the Mirrabooka was lowered into the heavy swell and Cec Williams, a non-swimmer, rowed back and forth with the wounded. The body of Arthur Scrobles proved to be too  heavy to get into the dinghy so it was  attached to the cod-ends of the Mirrabooka's  net and winched aboard. Scrobles, weighing around 21 stone, had been killed while trying to launch the lifeboat, and his body was found to have 22 bullet wounds. Able Seaman Archibald  McPherson, who was very badly wounded, Scrobles died on the journey back to Moruya. The third crew member fatally wounded, Chief Officer Alexander Reid, died several days later in hospital.

Source - Daily Telegraph August 8, 1942

Jim is a former Military Officer and Graduate of the Australian Army's Officer Training Unit at Scheyville and went on to build a career in the New South Wales Police Force. 

The Officer Training Unit, Scheyville (OTU Scheyville, pronounced Skyville) was a military training establishment for officers of the Australian Army. Located in the area of Scheyville in the Hawkesbury region of Sydney, the establishment was opened in April 1965 to train officer cadets who had been called up for service under the national service scheme and offered a short but rigorous commissioning course for trainees, tailored to meet the Army's need to increase the number of junior officers being produced in order to meet commitments to train national servicemen, and to provide platoon commanders for units serving overseas in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia. It was closed in 1974 after the national service scheme was abolished in December 1972.

Elizabeth French married Michael Sharpe in 1993. Elizabeth has three brothers and is the only daughter of Jill and James French. 

Elizabeth and Michael are long term life partners, having been together since they were teenagers and married for 29 years. They have encouraged volunteering and public participation all their lives, whilst bringing up three children and involving themselves in a wide range of local sporting and community groups.

See the Sharpe Family Tree here

London - James Blackman b 1759 married Elizabeth Harley and they sailed to Sydney.     

Sydney - Their daughter Mary Ann Blackman b 1803 married Josephus Henry Barsden          

Bathurst - Their daughter Mary Ann Barsden b 1824 married William Richard Smith          

Essington - Their son William Henry Smith b 1840 married Emma Humphries         

Oberon - Their daughter Sara Rose Mary Smith b 1865 married George Bailey          

Sydney - Their son Victor Ernest Bailey b 1898 married Sylvia Olds         

Sydney - Their daughter Merle Winifred Bailey married Douglas Woodhouse Sharpe.         

Gosford - Their son Ronald Douglas Sharpe b 1950 married Caroline Curby          

Gosford - Their son Michael Douglas Sharpe married Elizabeth French and they have three children and two grandchildren.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.