World War 2 Memorial Gates and Patricia Cashmore

¹Patricia Cashmore (Patty) was born on the 23rd of July in 1905 at Port Pirie, South Australia. She was the eldest daughter of Arthur Brook Cashmore, manager of Elder, Smith, & Company, Limited for some years in Port Pirie and Annie Amelia Cashmore, nee Whallin of Northcote, Victoria, Australia. Her schooling in Port Pirie included attending the Port Pirie High School and her early training in medical nursing began at the Port Pirie Hospital.

Patricia graduated in Surgical Nursing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in August 1930 before moving interstate to a position with the Melbourne Women’s Hospital. In 1939 she left Australia for England to do a special course, but while she was on her way war broke out, and she enlisted in the East African Military Nursing Service and spent time nursing in Italian Somaliland and Kenya.

Patricia 'Patty' Cashmore. Circa 1930

On the 5^th February 1944 Khedive Ismail, a troopship, left Mombasa bound for Colombo carrying 1,324 passengers including 996 members of the East African Artillery's 301st Field Regiment, 271 Royal Navy personnel, 19 WRNS, 53 nursing sisters (including Patricia) and their matron, nine members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and a war correspondent, Kenneth Gandar-Dower. She was part of Convoy KR 8 and it was her fifth convoy on that route.

The convoy was escorted by the Hawkins-class heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins and P-class destroyers HMS Paladin and HMS Petard. Khedive Ismail was carrying the Convoy Commodore.

Early in the afternoon of Saturday 12^th February, after a week at sea, KR 8 was in the One and a Half Degree Channel south-west of the Maldives. After lunch many of the passengers were below watching an ENSA concert, while others sunbathed on deck. 

³There was also a meeting of passengers in the saloon and Patty had offered to go down to her cabin - on the waterline - and fetch some photographs of interest.

The explosion happened while she was in her cabin and she would have been killed instantly. 

Sister Patricia Cashmore.

At 1430 hrs the Japanese submarine I-27 had taken position off Khedive Ismail's port side to attack. A lookout sighted I-27's periscope and raised the alarm; Khedive Ismail's DEMS gunners opened fire on the submarine. At the same time I-27's commander, CDR Toshiaki Fukumura, fired a spread of four torpedoes, two of which hit Khedive Ismail.
The troop ship's stern was engulfed in flame and smoke and she sank in three minutes. As the convoy's merchant ships scattered for safety, Paladin lowered boats to rescue survivors and Petard released depth charges. The troop ship had sunk too quickly to launch any lifeboats, but her Carley floats floated free and some survivors were able to board them.

After three patterned releases I-27 was forced to the surface. The two destroyers engaged her with their 4-inch (100 mm) QF Mk 5 main guns and Paladin moved to ram her, but as a Type B1 submarine, she was considerably larger than the destroyer so Petard signalled Paladin to abort the manoeuvre. Paladin therefore took avoiding action but too late, and I-27's hydroplane tore a 15-foot (4.6 m) gash in Paladin's hull.

I-27 submerged again and took refuge beneath the survivors. The destruction of a submarine that might sink more ships took precedence over the lives of survivors, so with Paladin out of action Petard resumed the attack with first depth charges, then 4-inch shellfire and finally 21-inch (530 mm) Mk IX torpedoes. The depth charge fuses had to be set to detonate at the most shallow depth, and they killed or wounded many people who had survived the initial sinking. The seventh torpedo finally destroyed I-27, sinking her with all hands. The battle had lasted two and a half hours.

Of 1,511 people aboard Khedive Ismail, only 208 men and 6 women survived the sinking and subsequent battle. 1,220 men and 77 women were killed. The sinking was the third largest loss of life from Allied shipping in World War II and the largest loss of servicewomen in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Nursing Sister Patricia Cashmore, 38 years of age, missing believed drowned, has no known grave – she is Known unto God and is honoured on the Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll, the East African Memorial in the Nairobi War Cemetery, the Henley Beach Council WW2 Honour Roll and is the only female on the WW2 Memorial Gates in Port Pirie South Australia with 91 others who made the supreme sacrifice.

Panel 1 of 2 (Not Shown) WW2 Memorial Gates, Port Pirie.

An In Memoriam death notice states: 4Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Patricia Cashmore, killed in action at sea, February 12^th 1944. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on her soul.

Sources:

¹Recorder, Port Pirie, SA Friday 3 March 1944

²https://www.militaryimages.net/media/patricia-cashmore.140211/

³https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/stories-service/australians-war-stories/pilots-pride-australian-efforts

4Southern Cross, Adelaide, SA Friday 13 February 1948