Able Seaman Ronald Ernest Smith, HMAS Canberra and HMAS Rushcutter, RAN
Australian War MemorialAble Seaman Ronald Ernest Smith was a D(h)arug man born on 13 February 1920 in Gladesville, Western Sydney, to Ernest Wallace Smith and Olivia Corrine Hunter. His father had been a Private with the Army Veterinary Corp in the First World War.
Ronald's great, great grandmother, Maria Lock, was a Boorooberrongal woman and daughter of Yarramundi, 'Chief of the Richmond Tribes', from the eastern floodplain of the Hawkesbury River.
Maria married [her second husband] Robert Lock, an illiterate, convict carpenter who had been assigned to work on the construction of the new Native Institution buildings at Black Town (Blacktown) in 1823. The marriage was the first officially sanctioned union between a convict and an Aboriginal woman, and Robert was assigned to her. Maria was well educated and through her husband, was granted over 100 acres of land. This land was later divided between their nine surviving children and stayed with their descendants until 1920.
Little is known of Ronald's childhood other than he grew up locally in Western Sydney. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 31 March 1941, aged 21.
After a short period of training, Able Seaman Smith served on HMAS Canberra in the Pacific Ocean. On 9 August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island, Canberra came under heavy Japanese attack while supporting US Marines near Savo Island in the Pacific. As the lead ship, Canberra received the full force of the barrage. The ship was hit 24 times in less than two minutes, and 84 of her crew, including the captain, were killed
Ronald was one of the lucky ones; he survived the attack, and returned to Australia to serve on an anti-submarine base on Bribie Island, Queensland.
In 1943, Ronald married his sweetheart, Gladys Jean Cole, in Dulwich Hill, Sydney.
In November 1944, Able Seaman Smith was transferred to HMAS Nizam. With this ship, he served in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and was part of the fleet that steamed into Tokyo Bay, Japan, at the end of the war.
Able Seaman Smith was transferred to HMAS Ruchcutter in December 1945, and discharged on 11 January 1946.
Ronald Ernest Smith died in Berry, NSW on 28 April 2016.
Image: Studio portrait of S5337 Able Seaman Ronald Ernest Smith who served during the Second World War on HMAS Canberra, RAN Station No. 4, HMAS Nizam and HMAS Rushcutter for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), c.2016.
- Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM2017.366.1
