Australia says it has identified the body of the only sailor recovered from a ship sunk during World War Two.
Thomas
Welsby Clark, 20, joined the HMAS Sydney just four months before it was
ambushed by a German raider in the Indian Ocean in 1941.
All 645 men on board the ship died - one of Australia's best-known wartime disasters.
Three months after the sinking, a body washed up in a life raft on Australia's Christmas Island.
Dressed in navy overalls that had been bleached white from the sun, he became known as the "unknown sailor".
He
was buried first on the island, a territory 1,500km (930 miles) off
Western Australia. Decades later, he was reburied on the mainland with
military rites.
On Friday, after years of DNA testing, Australia revealed the unknown sailor as Mr Clark.
Historians said the able seaman had come from a wealthy grazing family
and trained as an accountant. Both of his brothers had also served in
the war.
Tests
from his teeth matched the genetic material of his surviving
descendants. His family was informed of the news last week, officials
said.
"It's
a testament to modern science and technology that we have been able to
identify Tom, after all these decades," Veteran Affairs Minister Andrew
McGee said.
"Even after 80 years, we are still working so hard to identify and honour our servicemen and women."
The
Australian War Memorial in Canberra said it would dedicate its daily
Last Post ceremony to Mr Clark on Friday. Some of his relatives would
lay a wreath at a shrine, it said.
His
grave in Geraldton, Western Australia, will also get a new headstone.
Currently the inscription reads: "A Serviceman of the 1939-1945 War HMAS
Sydney."
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