Laurie Carr

In December 2021, I got an email from James Hickey the grandson of Laurie Carr who served on HMS Gambia 1944/45 in the Pacific. Laurie's story appears in the March 1921 issue of Navy Today and I have taken most of that and rewritten it here.

Signalman Carr at Navy Signal School in Dunedin. In 1939, Laurie Carr was 16 and a messenger boy in a jeweller’s shop in North Beach, Christchurch, New Zealand. A friend persuaded him to join TS Steadfast, a local cadet unit. When he was 18, he was called up for the army, 13 months later he transferred to the Navy, he trained at HMNZS Tamaki in Auckland. After three months’ training at a Signals School in Dunedin, Laurie embarked on a merchant ship on December 23, 1943 for the United Kingdom.

From London, on a convoluted route, it took 32 days to get to Aden. From there he went on a troopship to South Africa and finally on to HMNZS Gambia. Laurie remembers the carrier raid of Surabaya, a key Japanese installation, during Operation Transom in Indonesia in 1944. HMNZS GAMBIA headed home later in 1944 for a refit in Auckland, then joined the British Pacific Fleet. Gambia also served as ‘Fleet Guide’, placed in the middle of four aircraft carriers, providing anti-aircraft cover.

From July 1945, Gambia was part of the naval assault on the Japanese mainland. She is believed to have fired the last shots of the war, firing at a Japanese kamikaze aircraft shortly after the Japanese surrender and the signal to cease hostilities. Later, Gambia helped with the evacuation of Allied prisoners from the mainland. Laurie recalls the state of them. "They looked like skeletons, ou’d take one of them by their hand and lead them away. The others would follow without too much fuss. It was a terrible sight."

But James says that Laurie also has happier memories of his time on Gambia. Such as swapping fresh bread made on Gambia for ice cream from the American ships.

In 1945, Laurie was discharged from the Navy, having signed up for the duration of Hostilities and War. "There was no welcome back parade. We were put on parade, then dismissed, and that was it. There’s your train card, there’s your boat card, join the RSA. That was it."

Laurie Carr, TS Steadfast Cadet, in 1939. Signalman Carr at Navy Signal School in Dunedin. HMNZS Gambia at sea around 1945. Laurie Carr’s medals. From left, the 1939–45 Star, the Burma Star with Pacific Clasp, the War Medal, New Zealand War Service Medal, NZ Operational Service Medal. NZ Service Medal, Cadet Forces Medal with clasp. Laurie Carr (left) as a unit officer with TS Talisman in Nelson. A bottle of Wood's Old Navy Rum from the 40th Anniversary Reunion of the Commissioning of HMNZS Gambia in 1983 at Hokitika, New Zealand. Photo very kindly supplied by James Hickey whose grandfather, Laurie Carr, served on her during WWII.

Back home, Laurie rejoined TS Steadfast as an instructor, and was granted a Navy League (Cadet) Commission. Years later, this became a Commission with the Special Branch of the RNZNVR serving as a Sea Cadet Officer. At the time, a reasonable number of Sea Cadet Officers had wartime service. He was awarded the Cadet Forces Medal in the late 1940s for Long Service.

As a carpenter, Mr Carr helped build the building for reserve unit HMNZS Pegasus in Montreal St., Christchurch. In 1962, he took up a job in Nelson as Captain of a tug for the Harbour Board, working there for 13 years until retirement at 60. During that time he helped with Nelson’s Sea Cadets, TS Talisman, and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Laurie, who still lives in Christchurch with his wife Kath, attends the Cadets’ end of year parade every year and is always on the guest list for functions. He was entitled to his 1st clasp to his Cadet Forces Medal in 1961, but it wasn’t until 2017 that he received it, at HMNZS Pegasus.