Miscellaneous

Lot 816    SESSION 3 (2.30PM TUESDAY 17TH APRIL)    Miscellaneous

Estimate $50
Bid at live.noble.com.au

COMMEMORATIVE SERVING TRAY, in EPNS, machine turned recessed top and in the plain centre is fitted the enamel and gilt badge of MS Coy (Melbourne Steamship Coy), around this is inscribed, at the top, 'Presented To Mr Neil Allan/on the Event of his Marriage', and at the bottom, 'By The Engineer Officer/M.V.Duntroon. 1941'. Good very fine.

A connection cannot be confirmed but Lilian May (nee Malone), age 34, wife of Neil Allan, died at Royal Hospital for Women at Paddington, NSW on 5 June 1942.

M V Duntroon was a passenger ship built for the Melbourne Steamship Company and entered service in 1939. She was requisitioned by the Australian Army and served as a troopship from 1942 to 1949. She had an unfortunate incident in November 1940 in Port Phillip Bay when she collided with and sank the auxiliary minesweeper, HMAS Goorangai, the first WWII shipping loss for the RAN. Dogged by bad luck, she had a second collision in November 1943, sinking the American destroyer, USS Perkins off the north coast of New Guinea. She continued in service with the Army until 1946 and was then chartered by the RAN for transport duties with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The Duntroon was sold by its owners in 1961 and renamed Tong Hoo and again sold in 1966 and renamed Lydia. She was laid up in 1967 and later scrapped in 1973. The ship's bell is held at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Canberra, as part of a memorial to RMC Graduates killed on active service.