One of the last survivors of the WWII cruiser HMAS Perth – the Royal Australian Navy warship that played a major role in the Greek and Crete campaigns of WWII and which was eventually sunk by the Japanese – has died. Basil Hayler passed away at his home in Ferntree Gully, Victoria on Monday. He was 92.
Basil George Hayler was born in Werribee, Victoria in 1921 after his family had emigrated to Australia from England in 1911.

There he grew up with his four siblings – Edward, Lily, Maud and Esther – on a ten-acre soldier settlement site given to his father Edward for his service in France during WWI.

In 1938 Basil enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, aged 16. In March 1941 the Perth took part in the deployment of Allied forces to Greece, making two voyages with troops from Alexandria to Piraeus.

He would recount years later that whilst on shore leave, standing on the Acropolis, he witnessed the German bombing of Piraeus harbour as the Nazi invasion of Greece unfolded.

After playing a significant part in the Battle of Cape Matapan – where Allied forces destroyed five Italian battleships – by late April 1941 HMAS Perth was evacuating Allied troops from the mainland, taking off troops from Porto Rafti and Tolos.

In May, the Perth took part in the evacuation from Crete. Having picked up 1188 troops from Sfakia on May 29, as it made its way to Alexandria it was subject to repeated enemy attacks. One bomb which penetrated the boiler room killed 13 crew and passengers.

Basil and his ship made it to Alexandria. Shortly after he was transferred to HMAS Stuart which was deployed on ‘the spud run’ – ferrying vital supplies to the besieged Allied forces in Tobruk.

The move to the Stuart was fateful. In March 1942 HMAS Perth was sunk by the Japanese in the Battle of Sunda Strait with the loss of more than 340 lives.
In May 1944 whilst on leave in Australia, he married Pauline Kirkham, who he had known since childhood. Two children followed: Julie – born in 1946, who tragically died in a car accident in 1998, and Dianne, born in 1948.

After leaving the Navy in 1951, in civvy street he became an electrician and eventually ran his own electrical business. He also started a lily nursery which blossomed into one of the most successful wholesale lily nurseries in Australia, exporting worldwide.

In 1957 Basil was one of the founders of the HMAS Perth Association and became its president for many years. Also president of the HMAS Hawkesbury Association, he was an active and hugely popular member of Boronia RSL sub branch, the Rats of Tobruk Association and the Australian Lilium Society.
In the late 1980s Basil and Pauline left Melbourne to travel Australia and eventually settled in Tweed Heads. Pauline passed away in 1993.

Basil returned to Melbourne 12 years later to live in Ferntree Gully, where he was able to spend cherished time with his seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Basil Hayler’s funeral takes place at 10.00 am on Wednesday 26 February, Le Pine, Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully, VIC.