Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Thomas George (Bill) Johnson was the only son of Arthur and Tamar Johnson (nee Sutherland) who came to Australia at the start of the 20th century from the Shetland Islands. He had an older sister Margaret Ann.  

Bill was born on 5 August 1919 at Glanville, South Australia and attended Ethelton Primary School and Le Fevre High School. He was a true Portonian (a person who lived and worked in the Port Adelaide district). 

In 1935 Bill obtained an apprenticeship as a Fitter and Turner with General Motors-Holden at Woodville, South Australia and completed studies at the School of Mines. 

I​n early 1941 Bill travelled to Sydney to commence work at Cockatoo Island Naval Dockyards and qualified as a Marine Engineer. Bill’s war service commenced on 10 February 1942 when he joined the MV Nellore and travelled in a convoy bound for India and Ceylon. He was onboard the MV Nellore in Colombo harbour, Ceylon, on Easter Sunday 1942 when 75 Japanese planes attacked. During the air raid he was on fire control duty and saw Japanese Zero planes strafing the ship and other ships in the harbour. 

Later Bill served as a Marine Engineer on various ships during 1942-1944 on the Australian coast. These included the Quorna, Limerick, Ngakuta, Kekerangu and Narbada. In 1944 he travelled on the MV Troja as a passenger across the Indian Ocean to Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea. He travelled from Aden to Suez and then across the desert in a train to Cairo to join the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) vessel SS Changte. The Changte operated between Alexandria in Egypt and various ports such as Madras, Bombay, Rangoon, Colombo, Gaulle Bay and Trincomalee. It provided various allied fleet vessels and land bases with supplies and was the longest serving RFA ship during the war. Luck was with Bill as one ship he served on, the Nellore, was sunk by the Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean and another ship, the Limerick, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off Byron Bay on the eastern Australian coast. Fortunately these events happened sometime after he was discharged. 

In 1946 Bill was awarded the 1939 Star, Pacific Star with the Burma clasp, the Australian War Service Medal and the British War Service Medal. In 1999 he was awarded the Merchant Navy Cross. 

During the war Bill saw Sir Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt take a salute of ships in Alexandrina Harbour and personally met Lord Louis Mountbatten (Admiral of the Southeast Asia Fleet) who later became the last Viceroy of India.  

In 1948 Bill married Betty Robertson. They built a house in Woodville where they raised their family. They later built at Fulham Gardens. Betty passed away in 1984.  

Bill retired in 1980 after working for many years in Port Adelaide as the Shipping Representative of Port Adelaide shipping repair firm Simes and Martin. 

For many years Bill was an advocate for improving the welfare of those who served in the Australian Merchant Navy and their surviving widows. 

William Thomas George Johnson passed away in 2018 aged 98 years after living for many years in his final residence at Seaton, South Australia.