ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18240, 26 November 1924, Page 10

ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE.

FIRST DOMINION UNIT. (mxcial to "rxs rxaaa.") AUCKLAND, November 25. Preparations for the establishment of the first unit of the Boykl Naval Reserve (New Zealand Division) are proceeding, It will be enrolled in Auckland and comprise 120 mon. The officer in command will be Commandor J. B. Middleton. D.S.O, A sufficient number of R.N.V'JR. ofileerfl who served in the Navy during the war is available fer the division. As fa* as possible the men will be drawn from the yachting community., the aim being to secure youths and voung men possessing the tsen sense. "Servico will be an alternative to Territorial training. Commander Middleton is secretary ot the Auckland Navy League. He had a distinguished war record in the Royal Navy, From the keenness being displayed by those developing the organisation, there is no doubt a very fine naval corps will be established. It has beon approved in theory that as soon as the Volunteer Reserve Division has }>een started a scheme of cadet training will be run in conjunction with it, servico in which will be equivalent to service in the senior territorial cadets.

Commander Middleton joined the Royal Navy i n 1805, and after two years in the training-ship Britannia went to China in H.M.B. Powerful. When the ship was returning from that commission she landed guns in South Africa, and Commander Middleton received Ijis baptism of fire, serving with those guns in the defence of Ladysmith. His subsequent service embraced many ships. He was first lieutenant of the Hercules, the Atlantic flagship of Admiral Jellicoe before the war. He served around the Dardanelles from the first bombardment until September, 1916, when he was invalided. He waß second in command of Albion, and later in command of Hussar, also acting as chief of staff to the commodore of all the small and anti-submarine craft and supply ships. He received his D.S.O. for mine sweeping in the Narrows. After being invalided to England, he served with the Admiralty Board of Inventions, and was superintendent in charge of the experimental station that dealt with anti-submarine devices. He retired in 1920.