Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure today to talk about Reg Swanborough. Reg is 92, lives in Gawler, drives an immaculate Toyota Crown and is very well known to the local community. He is a great supporter of the Labor Party and of my candidacy. He has always been very active, very enthusiastic and, at 92, is still going strong. I want to talk a bit about his autobiography A life well lived: a war which shaped my future years. There is a picture of Reg on the front cover and there is a picture of some of the naval training on the back cover. In this book, Reg talks about some of the battles that went on in the Mediterranean in World War II. My wife and I got married in Gibraltar last year; we have just had our first wedding anniversary. When you walk around Gibraltar you realise just how important it was to World War II and, in particular, the Allies' hold on North Africa and the Mediterranean.

When you look at the history and think of what lay in the balance—the very future of western civilisation—you realise how important men like Reg Swanborough were. He talks about the Battle of Cape Spartivento. When he was two days out of Gibraltar, heading south of the island of Sardinia, the boson's pipe sounded and then, over the PA system, the captain said:

This is the Captain speaking. Enemy vessels have been sighted by the Ark Royal's aircraft. They are ahead on a reciprocal course to us. Surface action can be immediately expected. That is all.

You can imagine a young man of 18, on hearing that call to action, being slightly struck with the importance of it. And Reg was later called by the yeoman of the watch to climb 150 yards up to the crow's nest and haul down a particular flag. It speaks to Reg's courage that he did that, without thinking about it, with cannon fire all around the ship that he was on with so many other young men. Armour-piercing shells were dropping into the water, sending huge cascades of water over the ship. He talks about these things with such enthusiasm—such was the heroism of the age. All of my constituents should take some time to think about Reg's experiences and the men and women who sacrificed so much to make sure there was not just victory in the Pacific but victory in Europe and victory for western civilisation.