- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Letter to the Editor
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2021 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Dear Editor
Regarding the article on Lieutenant Commander Ernest Thomas Lees DSO RANR in the September 2021 NHR (‘Naval Sub Lieutenant awarded the Distinguished Service Order’), I have unearthed some information on him which may fill in a few gaps in the story.
Although christened Ernest, he was known as Max by friends and family. Max was born in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, the son of Sidney and Grace Hilda Lees, nee Eld. He was one of three children born to the couple, his brother Allan was twelve months older than him, and younger brother Milton (Pat) was born in 1919. Pat joined the Australian Army Permanent Forces in 1938 as a gunner before transferring to the 2nd AIF in 1941 by which time he was an Acting Company Sergeant Major. He later served with the 2nd/5th Battalion and in Z Force as a Lieutenant. In early 1945 he was awarded the Military Cross. Clearly gallantry and service were in the DNA of the Lees family.
Max completed his compulsory military service as a member of the RANR until the program ceased during the Great Depression. Max’s RANR File indicates that his occupation was ‘Assistant Purser’ implying he was in the mercantile marine in 1927, which probably explains why he has a RANR(S) number as a sailor. In 1934, his parents were living in Burwood, but he had already left home, and the 1934 and 1937 Electoral Rolls indicate he was living in Darlinghurst, Sydney where in 1935 he married Margery Mabel McLean.
After serving in HMS Arab, Max crossed the Atlantic on the Cunard liner RMS Samaria, departing Liverpool for Halifax, Canada, and New York on the 7th of November 1940, en route to Trinidad. In Trinidad he initially joined the Fleet Air Arm station HMS Goshawk, but from late January 1941 he was on the staff of HMS Benbow, the RN shore establishment at Port of Spain for ‘miscellaneous duties’. He remained in Benbow until August 1943 when he posted to HMS Malabar in Bermuda as the CO of the ML Base.
Margery managed to join Max in Trinidad, no easy thing in the time of war. US immigration records indicate that they had a son Jeremy who was born between May and August 1942. This range is based on his stated age on various immigration records entering and leaving the USA. When Jeremy was born, Max had been posted to Benbow at least eleven months, so one must assume Jeremy was conceived and born in Trinidad. That means that Margery arrived in Trinidad at the latest December 1941, which because of Pearl Harbour was also when civilian travel across the Pacific was severely restricted.
Immigration records indicate that the family relocated together from Trinidad to Bermuda through Florida in August 1943. There are also records of them travelling from Bermuda to Baltimore, Delaware, USA in May 1945 at the end of his posting.
Post-war, Max and Margery initially lived in Bellevue Hill in Sydney, and it appears he did not go back to sea. He is recorded on the 1954 and 1958 Electoral Rolls as being employed as a woodworker. There is a patent application in the National Archives by him for a children’s toilet seat, circa 1946. In 1963 he and Margery were living in Wolfe Street Newcastle – occupation ’Manager’. This probably explains the connection with the Newcastle Club.
By 1968 the couple had returned to Sydney and were residing at Darling Point, with his occupation still listed as a manager. The couple appear on the Electoral Rolls as living in the same unit at a Darling Point address until 1980. Throughout, this period, his occupation is listed as manager, however as he was entitled to the old age pension in 1969, I would suggest that like so many people he simply never changed his occupation on the ER when he retired.
Ernest (Max) Thomas Lees passed away in Sydney on 30 November 1989 aged 90. At the time of his death Margery was still alive. I have not been able to find a date of death for her, but it is unlikely she still lives as she would be 113 this year. I hope these ramblings are of assistance.
I commend Colin for an excellent and most enjoyable article about a remarkable man long forgotten by our navy.
Yours aye,
Tony Vine