CAPTURER OF VON LUCKNER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 120, 6 March 1950, Page 3

CAPTURER OF VON LUCKNER

DEATH ANNOUNCED (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 5. The man who captured Count Felixvon Luckner after the German raider’s ship was wrecked in the islands during World War I died in Auckland on Saturday. He was Mr Harry Clifford Hills, aged 65, of Herne Bay. Mr Hills’ capture of the German raider came as the climax to an ex- . citing and adventurous career ashore and afloat. At the time of the capture he was an inspector. of the* Fijian Native Constabulary stationed at Levuka. On September 19, 1917, he received a report from a . native captain that six white men in a launch were on the island of Wakaya, some distance from Levuka. He decided to investigate, and with another officer* and six native policemen he set out for the island in a native cutter. He was forced back to land, however, by a gale, and finally set out a day. late in a small steamer which was visiting Levuka. The steamer arrived at the island just as the Germans were making for the entrance of the reef to leave Wakaya, and Mr Hills ordered the captain of the steamer to lie across the passage to block their escape. , ... Pushing off in o lifeboat armed with an ordinary service revolver, Mr Hills and his policemen went alongside the launch and called on it to stop. It was then that von Luckner stepped forward, said who he was, and announced that he would surrender with . his five men. The German stated that they had sailed the launch more than 2000 mlies since the Seeadler was wrecked on an islahd in the Society Group in August. The prisoners were taken back to the steamer and pat under £Uard.