Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths Death, Australian survivor of the 1941 sinking of HMS Repulse Has Passed Away At 101

Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths Death: The last person likely to have survived the Battle of the South China Sea on December 10, 1941, when the battle cruiser Repulse was sunk, was Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths of the Royal Australian Navy, who passed away at the age of 101.

When Griffiths was assigned aboard Repulse, the ship was sent to the Far East in 1941 to thwart Japanese aggression, and Griffiths was still a teenage midshipman undergoing training. She and the battleship Prince of Wales were severely outclassed by land-based air power there, off the east coast of Malaya.

“It was a dark day, a very dark day for the Royal Navy,” Griffiths remembered. In Repulse, we had 1,309 and lost 513, while the Prince of Wales had 1,612 and lost 327.

People had little time to climb on deck after we were hit by five torpedoes in quick succession. The elderly woman listed to port before rolling over and sinking stern first. Fortunately, I was able to climb up through a scuttle, or porthole, and descend the ship’s side into the warm water below.

Over the years, I’ve been asked, “Were you worried about sharks?’” I replied that I hadn’t given it any attention at the moment. The focus was more on survival.

Following his landing in Singapore and rescue by escort destroyers, Griffiths completed his training aboard the battleship Revenge. In 1942, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant. Before boarding his first Australian ship, the cruiser Shropshire, in 1943, he completed a brief tour of duty on the destroyer Vivian.

He witnessed fighting in the South West Pacific during the course of the following two years, particularly at the straits of Surigao, Lingayen, and Leyte. In 1945, he received the DSC “for gallantry, skill, and devotion to duty as an Air Defence Operator while serving in HMAS Shropshire in the successful assault operations on Luzon Island.” He had been promoted to lieutenant in 1944.

In addition, he served as president of the Australian Naval Historical Society and patron of the HMAS Canberra-Shropshire Association, the HMAS Hobart Association, the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse Survivors’ Association, and others.

From a small-town kid, Griffiths developed into a highly esteemed naval officer. His ambition was too obvious in his early years, and he had been rather strict with his subordinates. However, as he grew older, he saw promotion as more of a chance to push himself professionally and accomplish changes he was passionate about for the Navy.

In his later years, he delighted in sharing his wartime experiences with young people, historical societies, and the media. He traveled to Portsmouth, England, in 2019 to see the commissioning of the new HMS Prince of Wales, having left Australia.

His buddy Admiral Peter Jones released his book, The Life and Times of an Australian Admiral, in 2001.

Griffiths met Carla Mengert, a German consul employee, in post-World War II Hong Kong. Born in Java, she was the daughter of German doctors. Her father was incarcerated in India during the war, and her brother lost his life while serving in the German army on the Eastern Front. She spent the war years in internment with her mother in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. They were wed in 1959; she passed away before him, and he is survived by a daughter and a son.