Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

December 22, 2008

Hi Mac I am wondering if you can possibly help. I am looking for Kevin Hobbs who served in the RAN during WW2. I do not know what ship he served on, whether he is still alive or not. All I know is that he is a cousin and my older sister corressponded with him when he served

Thanking you very much.
Bill Dahren

Bill,

Is this your man?

From Ran Service Records:

COOK(O)
KENNETH BARNFIELD HOBBS
S6614

Service  Royal Australian Navy
Date of Birth  11 November 1924
Place of Birth  BROKEN HILL
Date of Enlistment  15 June 1942
Home Port/Port Division  SYDNEY, NSW
Next of Kin  HOBBS, EDITH
Date of Discharge  26 July 1946
Posting at Discharge  HMAS Rushcutter

Regards,
Mac.

January 01, 2009

Hi Mac.

Happy New Year to you. After your recent health scare, I can well understand you having a few extra glasses of champagne (or Australian equivalent) last night.

I read the letter (on Ahoy) from Bill Dahren re Kevin Hobbs. From his service record on the NAA, it seems that he was in the RANR, not the RAN:

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=4553630&I=1&SE=1

He seems to have served on a fair number of different ships, although at a glance his time spent on some was quite short - in some cases just a matter of days; in one particular case, HMAS PING WO (I had never heard of this one before - seems to have been a tender), just one day.

If Bill is interested in finding further info on the ships, the best place to start would be to Google the ship names prefixed with HMAS and enclosed in quotation marks and see what turns up, e.g. "HMAS WHANG PU", which seems to have been a former Chinese river steamer commissioned into the RAN in 1943. The translation of this ship's badge apparently meaning "Happy Times". I wonder if it was happy times for Kevin Hobbs?

Wishing you happy times for 2009.

Kind regards,

Martin Elliget

Martin,

I trust 2009 brings only all that is good to you and your family.

I am still battling wild swings in my blood/sugar readings due to the Steroids that still have some weeks to run, but at least I am still around to keep AHOY up there.

Thanks as always for your support, and the detail on KEVIN.

Mac.

back to letters index