ABLE SEAMAN (RADAR) BRYAN ANGUS MACDONALD PM/5037 RANR
Bryan MacDonald was born in Carlton Victoria in late August 1921 and was mobilised for service on the 14th of September 1942, just weeks after his 21st birthday. Before enlisting in the RANR in August 1942 he had served in the Militia. He was the eldest of four children born to Angus and Elizabeth MacDonald. His younger brother Hugh had died in 1931 aged two.
After his basic training at HMAS Cerberus, Bryan undertook Radar specialist training which would indicate that he had a good education. This was followed by a short posting to HMAS Lonsdale which included two days at sea on the corvette HMAS Bunbury, probably to experience operating a radar at sea. He was rated as a Able Seaman (Radar) in August 1943 by which time he was posted to HMAS Basilisk, the RAN’s shore establishment in Port Moresby. In October he moved to the establishment HMAS Ladava at Milne Bay.
What Bryan’s employment was at Ladava is unclear, however in March 1944 he embarked on the river class frigate HMAS Gascoyne for passage, en-route to HMAS Rushcutter in Sydney. After a further period of training he joined the Bathurst Class Corvette HMAS Cowra in July 1944, he would remain on Cowra until February 1946. This period was spent on monotonous escort duties in New Guinea waters only broken when the ship was called in to bombard Japanese held positions at Yalela Bay in the Northern Halmaheras with her single 12 – Pounder Gun.
In March 1946 Bryan was demobilised and he returned home to his family home in Sedden Victoria where he would live for over twenty years. He worked as a clerk in the Public Service moving to Canberra in the early 1970s. Bryan never married and on retirement he moved to the Mid-North Coast of NSW.
Bryan Angus MacDonald passed away in Macksville, NSW on the 6th of September 2015 aged 94. His body was cremated and his ashes interred in a memorial wall at Lavertys’ Funeral Home in Macksville NSW.
Sources
Service Record - Australian National Archives
Nominal Roll - Department of Veterans Affairs
