Bid to identify unknown sailor reaches critical stage
25 June 2007
The bid to identify the remains of an unknown sailor, almost certainly from HMAS Sydney (II), has reached a critical stage, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence Bruce Billson said today.
HMAS Sydney (II) was lost in November 1941 off the West Australian coast following an engagement with the German raider Kormoran. All 645 crew members were also lost.
The sailor's remains were recovered from Christmas Island last November.
Since that time the Royal Australian Navy has overseen a painstakingly thorough and methodical forensic and historical investigation in an attempt to identify the remains.
Mr Billson said that as a result of this extraordinary work, the field of potential matches has narrowed considerably. An initial short-list of three possible HMAS Sydney (II) crew has emerged as potential matches:
- LEUT Allan Wallace Wilson,
- SBLT Allen James King and
- SBLT Frederick Harold Schoch.
All three were Engineering officers.
"While this is an exciting development, I must stress that the short-list is by no means definitive, and we are not ruling out other possibilities. The three sailors identified are simply the most likely prospects for a match based on the research conducted to date," he said.
"It is still quite possible that we will never know the identity of the sailor."
The next phase of the investigation involves seeking additional biographical, physiological or medical information on the short-listed officers that may assist the identification process. To this end, surviving relatives of Sub-Lieutenants King and Schoch have been contacted by phone, and Minister Billson has written to them to seek their assistance. The investigating team is yet to locate relatives for the third officer, Lieutenant Allen Wallace Wilson. Mr Billson said he was very keen to hear from any surviving relatives of Lieutenant Wilson or anybody else who may be able to provide information.
The identification process to date has been a complex undertaking, conducted in a number of phases. Firstly, a post-mortem dental examination of the remains was carried out. Regrettably, only half the crew dental records are available, the remainder having been lost with the ship.
While no positive match was achieved, this analysis resulted in more than 300 of the crew being excluded.
The next stage involved an anthropological examination of the skeleton.
This effectively excluded a further 200 crew members on the bases of indicative age at death and height. This left about 100 of HMAS Sydney (II) crew as potential matches for the remains.
In attempting to reduce the number of potential matches to a manageable level for the purposes of possible DNA testing, the outcomes of analyses conducted on artefacts found with the remains in the grave were also considered.
In particular, Australian War Memorial (AWM) analysis of cloth fragments found within press-studs resulted in the assessment that the man had been buried wearing white coveralls.
Historical research by the AWM and the Navy's Sea Power Centre-Australia concluded that the sailor was therefore most likely to be an Officer or WO from one of the technical categories.
Mike Cecil of the Australian War Memorial said this conclusion is based on the assumption that the sailor was dressed in accordance with Naval regulations and was indeed wearing his own coveralls.
"It must be noted that it remains quite possible that these assumptions may prove to be incorrect," Mr Cecil said.
RAN forensic team leader CMDR Matt Blenkin said while the clothing analysis has considerably reduced the number of potential matches for the unknown sailor, more information is required to achieve positive identification. DNA testing of the remains will be conducted over the next two weeks, and if successful, will enable a DNA comparison against any surviving relatives to be made.
"DNA testing may provide the breakthrough the team is looking for, however, it is possible that we won't be able to extract viable DNA from the remains," he said.
Mr Billson said despite the progress to date it must be stressed that an individual identification still remained a long-shot.
"The process to date has been extremely thorough in order to ensure the integrity of the findings, and to provide the greatest possible chance of success in finally identifying the unknown sailor. It is my sincere hope that we will be able to identify him, and bring a sense of closure to his family," Mr Billson said.
