NAVAL V.C.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 196, 19 August 1940, Page 4

NAVAL V.C.

OFFICER'S BRAVERY.

KNOWN IN NEW ZEALAND.

For outstanding bravery end devo*turn to duty at Namsos and on patrol work on the Norwegian coast, an' office* of the Royal Naval Voh&teer .Reserve, Lieutenant Richard Bean Stannard, who has been a frequent visitor to New Zealand in British merchant ships, has been awarded the Victoria Crass. Lieutenant Stannard was 'serving in a naval trawler, H.MJ3.-Arab, during the Allied campaign againet the; Germans ■'; in Norway. ■ ~ ■■'"" "'■''? -: " |MV..j' ■-> Press Association cable .from London states that''when enemy bombing* had set. oh -fire';inany tons of handgrenades on Namisoe - wharf, Lieutenant Stannard -ran the AraV» bow againet the wharf and held the ship there. Sending all but two of the crew aft, he attempted for two hours to extinguish the firee with the ship's hoses and pereieted until the attempt had to be given up as hopeless.

While the Arab was later leaving port. Lieutenant Stannard brought down a bomber which ordered the ehip to steer east or be sunk. The Arab was subjected to 31 bombings in five days, but Lieutenant Stannard was consistently arranging protection and heartening his men while ashore.

Lieutenant Stannard is 38 years of age. After serving for 16 yeare with tne Port Line, he joined the service of the Orient Line six yeare ago. He last visited Auckland as senior second officer of the Orcades liner on a cruise two years ago. He is a son of a sea captain and has been at sea since he was Iβ years of age. While in the service of the Port Line he proved himself a smart, capable eeainau, and obtained his master's certificate. For his service in the last war he was awarded the Merchant Service Medal and the General Service Medal.

His brother, Mr. John Stannard, who iB a second officer in the eeroce of the Port Line, married Miss Elwyn Riley, of New Plymouth, last year. A later cable message states that among Lieutenant Stannard'e" associations with New Zealand and New Zealanders, he and the other members of H.M.S. Arab's company received comforts provided as a result of the initiative of Mr. T. H. Grenfell, a former New Zealander, now living at Leeds, who recently formed circles to send parcels to naval men on minesweepers, trawlers and other vessels. Lieutenant Stannard sent a letter to Mr. Grenfell expressing deep appreciation of hie action.

It is also stated that a former Wellington resident, Mr. Charles Proctor, undertook to form a Wellington circle, to which the care of the Arab's men has been allotted. A member of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, Sub-Lieuten-ant Ernest Thomas Lees, of H.M.S. Arab, was awarded the D.S.O. for devotion to duty in the Namsos incident.