Dragons launch 2025 Commemorative Jersey

The Dragons are proud to launch the club’s 2025 Commemorative Jersey which pays tribute to former St George Dragon Spencer Walklate.

The side will don the jersey in their annual Anzac Day clash against the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.

Lance Corporal Spencer Henry Walklate debuted for the St George Dragons on April 24, 1943, against North Sydney at the Sydney Cricket Ground. A strapping front rower, Walklate made an immediate impact thanks to his fearless style of play on both sides of the ball. He would go on to appear in 15 games scoring 12 points, including two tries. Walklate enlisted in the Australian Army on December 31, 1943, in the elite Z Special Unit – now known as the SAS.

On April 11, 1945, Walklate was one of eight Australian Army Z Special Unit commandoes assigned to ‘Operation Copper’ – a reconnaissance mission to Japanese-occupied Muschu Island off the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Their mission was to locate the rumoured ‘Guns of Muschu’ – concealed Japanese naval weapons that posed a threat to the upcoming Australian campaign to capture the mainland town of Wewak.

The mission was fraught from the start with the unit issued obsolete weapons and equipment. Paddling to shore in kayaks under the cover of a moonless night, the commandoes became wrecked on an uncharted reef. Their equipment was riddled by salt water which rendered important communications tools useless. One of their oars was unable to be recovered and would later wash up on a nearby shore, alerting the Japanese troops to the Australians’ presence on the island.

Despite many obstacles, Operation Copper continued their mission. The troops successfully located the concealed guns, sabotaged other weapons on the island, and gathered intelligence of Japanese operations.

Unable to use their damaged equipment to signal the awaiting patrol boat for pick-up, the group split into two. Walklate was last seen swimming out to sea with three other members of the operation in the hope they’d be spotted by an Australian plane or patrol boat. All four men were listed as missing in action, presumed dead. Of the eight soldiers who participated in Operation Copper, only one survived.

After years of investigations by the Unrecovered War Casualties Unit, Spencer Walklate’s remains were discovered in 2013 in an abandoned medical dump on Kairiru Island.

Army records and interviews with Japanese veterans revealed that Walklate was captured by the enemy. Refusing to give up details of Operation Copper that could jeopardise the upcoming Australian campaign in Wewak as well as the lives of his fellow Z Unit members who may have still been trapped on or around Muschu Island, Walklate was relentlessly tortured by Japanese soldiers. He was eventually murdered by his captors; his death and torture considered a war crime.

St George Dragon #221, Spencer Henry Walklate was finally laid to rest at Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby on June 12, 2014. Lost at just 27 years of age, he was survived by his wife, Linda, and his three children, Spencer, Terrence, and June.

This Anzac Day, we pay tribute to the courage, sacrifice, and service of Lance Corporal Spencer H. Walklate and the men of Operation Copper.

The Soldiers

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