Almondbury woman remembers seeing HMS indomitable in Australia

Apr 2 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A PENSIONER who picked up a copy of The Weekend Examiner was reminded of her time in Australia during the Second World War.

Norma Hanson, of Almondbury, read a story about the ‘Indomitables’, a rugby league team who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1946.

Their tour was historic as it was the first major sporting event after the war ended.

Royal Navy vessels were the only way to travel to Australia at the time, so the Great Britain Lions made a trip on aircraft carrier, HMS Indomitable.

Norma, who was a nurse in Australia during the war, said: “I watched the HMS Indomitable sail into Fremantle Docks near Perth – from the deck of another aircraft carrier – HMS Victorious.”

The players on the Indomitable kept up their fitness levels on the six-week voyage by stoking the boilers. When they arrived in Perth they organised a friendly match with a local rugby league team.

Norma said: “As a young lass from the game’s home town I got as many shipmates as possible to go along and give them support.”

Norma was working as a nurse at the large naval hospital in Sydney and was returning home after the war.

The ship she was travelling on was damaged by heavy storms and had to be put into Fremantle for extensive repair.

Five hundred naval personnel were stranded.

The players on the Indomitable were told they had to abandon ship so prisoners of war could be taken to Singapore.