SPRING LUNCHEON FOR RETIRED DOCTORS

2022

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REPORT DR JEAN DOUGLAS RETIRED GENERAL PRACTITIONER AMA VICTORIA RETIRED DOCTORS COMMITTEE

Fifty eight doctors, partners and friends attended our successful Retired Doctors’ Luncheon at Young and Jackson’s Hotel in the city during September. Our guest speaker was Mr John Hasker AM who spoke about The Sinking of the HMAS Sydney (II) in November 1941. John, now retired, was a Civil Engineering graduate from the University of Melbourne in 1960.

John told the group about his cousin Dr John Reid Hasker (Jack), Surgeon Commander, the Senior Medical Officer on the HMAS Sydney when it was sunk by the German raider cruiser Kormoran after a short battle off the coast of Western Australia.

John had only a basic knowledge of Jack when he was contacted by a Geelong journalist for comment after the wreckage of the Sydney was found in 2008.

John was curious to research his cousin’s short life as not a lot had been passed down. Families so rarely discussed their war experiences and losses.

He discovered that Jack Hasker was 41 years old and single when he was lost in the Indian Ocean with 644 other naval seamen. He was born in Ballarat. His father, Thomas, was a bank manager with the Bank of NSW in country Victoria. After being transferred to Warrnambool this became the family home for many years.

He attended Geelong Grammar from 1915-1918 then to Trinity College at Melbourne University where he graduated in Medicine in 1925. He was a sports all-rounder at school and university. After graduation his residency was at the Bendigo Hospital.

In May 1928 he joined the Australian Navy and as a career naval officer served on a number of navy ships and bases such as Cerberus, Adelaide, Penguin, Swan and Hobart. He was posted to the HMAS Sydney on a number of occasions early in 1941 as the Senior Medical Officer.

John recalled hearing Dr John’s sister Meg speaking about being visited by him whilst on leave shortly before his ship left for Western Australia. This would have been the last time he saw his family.

Much controversy about the sinking of HMAS Sydney can be found. No documentation remain from the ship with German logs and diaries the only recordings of the battle. Despite much discussion within the Australian government over many years, the wreckage of both the Sydney and the Kormoran was found in 2008 by David Mearns, a private underwater shipwreck hunter.

John and his daughter Lisa were fortunate to be invited to Western Australia in 2008 to travel on the HMAS Manoora to the wreckage site with 280 other other family descendants.

John discussed hearing stories from other relatives of Jack’s medical practice on board ship: retold by their kin who left the ship before it sunk. There was no doubt he was a well-respected and caring ship’s doctor.

The other doctor lost was Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Francis Harrison Genge, a NSW doctor stationed at Flinders Naval Base as well as dentist Surgeon Lieutenant Mervyn Townsend brother of Professor Lance Townsend, the noted Obstetrics and Gynaecology academic from the University of Melbourne.

It was a privilege to have John as our guest speaker and John felt very privileged to meet many friends and colleagues from his school and Ormond College days who attended the lunch.