Commander Arthur Stanley STOREY DSC*
Arthur
Stanley Storey was 13 years old when selected to enter the
Royal Australian Naval College in 1923 as one of 12 Cadet
Midshipmen. His peers were quick to note that his
initials provided a ready foundation for the nickname
“Donk”. It was an early measure of the man to be, that
he happily adopted the pseudonym for use in all company for
the rest of his life.
His academic, sporting and professional achievements at the
Naval College were outstanding and included the award of the
King’s Medal for gentlemanly bearing, character, good
influence among his fellows and officer like qualities.
After graduation in 1926 he proceeded to the United Kingdom
for further shore and sea training as Midshipman and
Sub-Lieutenant.
Arthur was born on 23 March 1909 at Leicester, England,
son of Edith Horne, a draper’s assistant. The identity of
his father is unknown. Mother and son migrated to Australia
and settled at Blacktown, Sydney. In 1913 Edith married
William Henry Storey, a bootmaker born at Nagambie,
Victoria.
On promotion to midshipman in 1927, Storey was sent to
Britain for professional courses and sea training with the
Royal Navy. Postings to ships of both the Royal Navy and
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) followed, as he progressed
through the junior ranks to Lieutenant (1931). He undertook
the long gunnery course at HMS Excellent, Portsmouth,
England (1934–35). On 18 December 1936 at St Paul’s
Pro-Cathedral, Wellington, New Zealand, he married
Sydney-born Alison Raymond Addison whom he had met on shore
leave when his ship had visited Wellington earlier in the
year. In August 1939 he was promoted to Lieutenant
Commander.
Shortly after World War II broke out in
September, he was posted as ship’s and squadron Gunnery
Officer in the light cruiser HMS Naiad, Flagship of the 15th
Cruiser Squadron.
After operating with the British Home Fleet, the squadron
deployed to the Mediterranean in 1941. On 22 May Naiad was
seriously damaged by German bombs. Repaired, it bombarded
shore positions in Syria and North Africa, engaged enemy
forces at sea and in the air, and escorted convoys.
Storey was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (January
1942) for.....
.....‘his conspicuous bravery,
outstanding zeal, patience and cheerfulness, and for whole
hearted devotion to duty’.
On 11 March
1942, off the Egyptian coast, Naiad was torpedoed by a
German submarine and sunk with heavy loss of life; Storey
was among the survivors.
Thanks to his good nature, and an established relationship
of mutual respect with the Squadron Commander, Rear Admiral
(later Admiral of the Fleet Sir) Philip Vian, Storey was
transferred at Vian’s request to his new Flagship, HMS Cleopatra, as First Lieutenant and Squadron Gunnery
Officer.
Vian described Storey as ‘one of the ablest officers I have
ever known’. He was less impressed with another
Australian, Naiad’s Executive Officer, Commander (later Vice
Admiral Sir) Roy Dowling, whose further services he did not
seek. It was widely believed in the RAN that Dowling
resented the perceived snub and held it against Storey.
Cleopatra’s record in the Mediterranean was to be as notable
as Naiad’s had been. On 22 March 1942 Vian’s four light
cruisers and seventeen destroyers, escorting a vital convoy
to Malta, came into contact with a more powerful Italian
force, comprising a battleship, two heavy cruisers, one
light cruiser, and ten destroyers. With gunfire, smoke
screens, and torpedoes, the British warships harried and
confused the Italians until the latter withdrew just before
dusk.
Admiral Lord Cunningham later described this action as “one
of the most brilliant Naval actions of the War, if not the
most brilliant.”

HMS Cleopatra blows smoke to
shield the convoy as HMS Euryalus prepares to engage the
Italian fleet
For his part in what became known as the Second
Battle of Sirte, Storey was awarded a Bar to his DSC, the
citation stating that.....
.....‘By supreme efficiency and sheer force of
personality, he produced an inspiring and well-directed
volume of fire from an untrained ship, some of whose
controls had been shot away and control ratings killed in
his presence’.
At the exceptionally young age of thirty-three, Storey was
promoted to Commander on 31 December 1942 and appointed as
Director of Operations at Navy Office, Melbourne. From July
1944 to September 1945 he served in the Pacific, first as
Staff Officer Operations and Intelligence to (Sir) John
Collins and Harold Farncomb, successive Commodores
commanding the Australian Squadron, in HMA ships Australia
and Shropshire. During actions off Leyte and
Lingayen in the Philippines Donk survived six Kamikaze
attacks.
In March 1945, at the special request of Vice Admiral
Sir Phillip Vian, commanding the 1st Aircraft Carrier
Squadron of the British Pacific Fleet, Donk joined HMS
Indomitable as a member of the Admiral’s operations
staff. Here, during air operations against the
Japanese home islands, Donk experienced 2 further Kamikaze
attacks and, after transferring with the Flag to HMS
Formidable, his 9th attack.

HMS Formidable on fire after
the kamikaze hit.
As soon as the war
ended Donk was recalled to take up duty as Executive Officer
in HMAS Australia. Before taking up this
posting, his appointment was changed to Director of Naval
Intelligence in Melbourne.
On 27 May 1948, after 2 1/2 years ashore he was posted to
the command of the Tribal-class destroyer HMAS Bataan.
From July to November the ship was in Japanese waters as a
unit of the Support Group, United States Naval Forces in the
Far East. The group’s commander, Rear Admiral J.P.
Womble, USN, praised Storey’s performance of the duties
assigned to him.
In all, Commander Storey's experience in WWII was
widespread, it included service with the British Home Fleet
during which he was well within the Arctic Circle at Jan
Mayen Island; with the Mediterranean Fleet at Crete, Syria;
and with the Malta and Tobruk convoys. With the
Seventh Fleet in New Guinea and Philippine Operations and
with the British Pacific Fleet in operations at the Ryukyu
Islands, at Formosa(Taiwan), and the Japanese
archipelago.
With his
professional brilliance, unrivalled operational experience,
and engaging personality, Storey seemed destined for the
RAN’s highest rank. It was generally expected that he would
be promoted to Captain in 1949. Before the June selections,
however, he shocked his many admirers by resigning his
commission and on 24 June he was transferred to the Emergency
List. He considered that Dowling -- by then a senior Captain,
and well placed to succeed Collins as Chief of the Naval
Staff -- would block his later advancement.
Storey became Director of the Joint Intelligence Bureau in
the Department of Defence, Melbourne, in 1949. He resigned
from the public service in 1952, and, for the remainder of
his working life, was an executive with the Sydney
conglomerate Clyde Industries Ltd. As ‘quietly ambitious as
he was quietly efficient’, he was
concurrently group controller of personnel and personal
assistant to the chairman and general manager, Sir Raymond
Purves; he became an assistant director in 1962 and a full
director following Purves’s death in 1973, before retiring
in 1984.
Arthur Stanley "Donk"
Storey died on 29 November 1995 at Greenwich, Sydney.
He was
survived by his wife Alison, son Chris and daughter
Gabrielle. He was a much loved “Grandonk” to their
families.
Sources:
Australian
Dictionary of Biography
Naval Historical Society of Australia - Obituary
Navy League of Australia - Journal 'The Navy' - January 1948
Wikipedia
Compiled by Laurie Pegler
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