Eric was born on 22 February 1915 in Williamstown, Hobsons Bay City, Victoria, Australia to Alexander and Agnes Bond. He was married to Grace Bond and father of Lorraine and Beverley.

A labourer before the war, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 2 September 1939 at Williamstown, Victoria, serving on the Elsa (17 April to 24 April 1940) and Warrawee (19 May to 21 May 1941), he then spent some time on tenders before joining the ships’ company of H.M.A.S. Perth (D29) on 20 January 1942.

In February 1942, Perth was attached to an Allied cruiser squadron and survived the Battle of the Java Sea. Unfortunately, while attempting to break out through the Sunda Strait, Perth was torpedoed and sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

328 officers and men survived the sinking of the Perth, recovered by Japanese destroyers in the Sunda Strait, some had swum ashore only to be captured by Japanese land forces.

Eric and the survivors were sent to work on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway (Death Railway) with many more crewmembers dying during this time under the harsh conditions and punishments from their captors. When finished, the fittest survivors were shipped to mainland Japan to work in coal mines, however the convoy was torpedoed by Allied submarines and again, more of the ship’s company died. Eric surviving this ordeal arrived in Fukuoka internment Camp, Japan on 15 January 1945 only to die of acute enteritis on 22 January 1945.

Post war, Eric was recovered and reburied in CWGC Yokohama War Cemetery, his final resting place is in the Australian Section, plot E.A.7.

Only 218 members of H.M.A.S. Perth’s complement survived the war.