Memorial service in Sydney for Sydney - April 24

Antipodean Andy · Apr 23, 2008

HMAS Sydney crew to be remembered - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will attend a memorial service today for the crew of HMAS Sydney, which was sunk with all hands in 1941.

The service is at Saint Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney at 11:00am (AEST) and relatives of the ship's crew will be attending.

The commanding officer of the current HMAS Sydney, Captain Braddon Wheeler, says the service will be a momentous occasion to remember those who died.

"The cathedral's bell will toll 645 times for each of the members of the crew that were lost in HMAS Sydney and three RAAF Hawks will fly over the city," he said.

"At the end of that, the families will have the chance to mix with the Prime Minister and other VIPS and hopefully they'll then have the chance later on to come down and visit the ship."

The wreck of the Sydney was finally found off the coast of Western Australia last month.

Finding Sydney Foundation chairman Ted Graham says the service will bring comfort to the sailors' relatives.

"It's a major step towards bringing peace to the families of those lost on HMAS Sydney," he said.

"There were 639 sailors and six airmen, as you know, and this is a very significant step."

But Mr Graham says there was not enough time to include the service in tomorrow's Anzac Day commemorations.

"Common sense says to me that they wouldn't have had a chance," he said.

"Anzac Day services are organised years in advance. For us to find Sydney last month was, obviously, not predicted that we would do so.

"So I imagine it was just impossible for them to do anything else but hold a separate service to the planned Anzac Day services."
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