Hector MacDonald Laws Waller was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy. His career spanned almost thirty years, including service in both world wars. At the helm of the flotilla leader HMAS Stuart in the Mediterranean from 1939 to 1941, he won recognition as a skilful ship’s captain. He then transferred to the South West Pacific as captain of the light cruiserHMAS Perth, and went down with his ship against heavy odds during the Battle of Sunda Strait in early 1942. In 2011, he came under formal consideration for the award of the Victoria Cross for his performance as Perth’s captain, and the submarine HMAS Waller is named in his honour.
About Hector Waller in brief
Hector MacDonald Laws Waller was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy. His career spanned almost thirty years, including service in both world wars. At the helm of the flotilla leader HMAS Stuart in the Mediterranean from 1939 to 1941, he won recognition as a skilful ship’s captain. He then transferred to the South West Pacific as captain of the light cruiserHMAS Perth, and went down with his ship against heavy odds during the Battle of Sunda Strait in early 1942. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, and twice mentioned in despatches, for his achievements. In 2011, he came under formal consideration for the award of the Victoria Cross for his performance as Perth’s captain, and the submarine HMAS Waller is named in his honour. Hec Waller, named in honour of General Hector MacDonald, hero of the Boer War, and a forebear called Laws who was an admiral and a contemporary of Viscount Nelson, was the son of William Frederick Waller and his wife Helen Waller. The youngest of ten children, of whom eight survived infancy, he attended Benalla Higher Elementary School. Waller entered the RoyalAustralian Naval College as a cadet midshipman on 31 December 1913, aged 13. In 1917, his final year at the college, he was raised to chief cadet captain and won the King’s Medal, awarded for his “gentlemanly bearing, character, good influence among his fellows and officer-like qualities” He married Nancy Bowes, a minister’s daughter, on 7 April 1923 in the Sydney suburb of Lewisham; the couple had two sons, Michael and John.
In April 1924, he began training as a signals officer in England; his classmates included Lord Louis Mountbatten. Between the wars, he specialised in communications and was posted as signals officer to several British and Australian warships. He gained his first seagoing command in 1937, as Captain of the destroyer HMS Brazen. In September 1939, he took charge of HMAS Stuart and four other obsolete destroyers that together became known as the \”Scrap Iron Flotilla\”. In 1940, these were augmented by other ships to form the 10th Destroyer Flotillas, supporting Allied troops in North Africa. In July 1930 he was posted aboard HMAS Australia’s flagship, the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra. In November 1937, he spent six months in British Intelligence Division, working on the British Naval Division. In June 1934, he became executive officer of the RANC Departing Office in Melbourne, returning to Canberra in August 1933. The following month he was promoted to commander.
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This page is based on the article Hector Waller published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
