The Australian government has announced that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Largs Bay, currently undergoing a refit at Falmouth, is to be commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Choules.

She is being named after Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules, pictured below, who died in May, in Perth, Australia, at the age of 110. He was the last man who had served in World War I.

Purchased by the Australian government for £65 million the Largs Bay is expected to sail from the docks in late October after completing crew training and her refit. She is already carrying her pennant number L100.

Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, Chief of the Australian Navy said: “The pennant number of HMAS Choules will be L100, further reinforcing the link to the centenary of the Royal Australian Navy and those who have served in it throughout its history.

“HMAS Choules will be an exceptional addition to the fleet. The ship will commission in Australia later this year.”

Claude Choules was born in England two days after the birth of Australia’s Navy in March 1901. Like the ship that will bear his name, Claude started his naval service in the Royal Navy, in his case in 1916. He went to Australia on loan in 1926 and soon decided to transfer to the RAN.

He was a member of the commissioning crew of HMAS Canberra (I) in 1928 and, in 1932, became a Chief Petty Officer Torpedo and Anti Submarine instructor. During World War II Claude was the acting Torpedo Officer in Fremantle and the Chief Demolition Officer on the west coast.

He transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police after the war so that he could continue to serve. He finally retired in 1956.

Admiral Griggs said: “In naming the ship after Claude Choules we not only acknowledge his 40 years of service in peace and war but the contribution of all who have faced the unremitting hazards of the sea and the challenges of conflict in the last century.

“The naval service demands endurance and self-sacrifice and, by its nature, much goes unseen. The Navy’s history has included many fierce battles but it is also marked by the patient and devoted patrol, surveillance and escort work which has ensured that Australia and its allies have been able to use the seas to achieve victory.”