Hector Waller - Legacy

Legacy

On 15 March 1946, Waller was awarded a posthumous mention in despatches for "gallantry and resolution" aboard HMAS Perth. His younger son John followed him into the Navy, entering the RANC in 1947. Graduating as chief cadet captain, John Waller became a weapons electrical engineer and attained the rank of commander in 1967, before transferring to the Emergency Reserve as a senior Navy research scientist.

Hec Waller's name appears on the Roll of Honour located at Panel 6 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, and on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Devon, England. He is also commemorated by Waller Crescent and Waller Place in the Canberra suburb of Campbell. The Benalla Costume and Pioneer Museum holds his medals and dress uniform. The Waller Division of the RAN Recruit School at HMAS Cerberus, Victoria, is named in his honour.

HMAS Waller, the third of the RAN's Collins-class submarines to enter service, was commissioned on 10 July 1999. The attendees included John Waller, Michael Waller's wife, and surviving crewmen of HMAS Perth. On 13 March 2010, a memorial to Waller was unveiled in his home town of Benalla. In April 2011, he was one of thirteen servicemen—eleven sailors and two soldiers, including Teddy Sheean, Robert Rankin, and John Simpson Kirkpatrick—named by the Australian government for consideration as possible recipients of the Victoria Cross (VC) for extreme valour in combat, under a review by the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. To date, no RAN member has been awarded the decoration.