NAVAL OFFICERS PROMOTED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28009, 2 July 1956, Page 14

NAVAL OFFICERS PROMOTED

TWO LISTS RELEASED COMMANDER J. N. ALLAN TO BE CAPTAIN •New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 1. The New Zealand Naval Board to-dc-y announced two promotion lists. One is effective from June 30. and the other is a provisional list which will become effective on December 31. The early announcement of the December list is new to the Royal New Zealand Navy. It is designed to assist planning the future appointments of the officers affected. Royal New Zealand Navy To commander: Lieutenant-Com-mander R. T. Hale, of Hamilton; Lieutenant-Commander T. A. Simpson, of Auckland; Lieutenant-Com-mander F. Hardman, of Auckland. Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve To captain: Commander J. N. Allan, V.R.D.. of Christchurch. To commander: Lieutenant-Com-mander I. B. Campbell, M.8.E., ot Wellington The December provisional list is:— Royal New Zealand Navy

To captain: Commander J. O’C. Ross, of Port Chalmers. To commander: Lieutenant-Com-mander T. L. Taylor, of Hastings. Captain Allan’s Career Captain Allan was appointed commanding officer of the Canterbury Division of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve in January, 1953. He joined the Otago Division of the reserve in 1930 as an ordinary seaman, and by 1934 had been commissioned as a sub-lieutenant. He was promoted lieutenant in 1937. and at the outbreak of World War II took charge of training at the headquarters of the Otago Division.

From Duned.n, Captain Allan went to Melbourne to the Flinders Naval Ease, where he took advanced courses before being posted to H.M.N.Z.S. Monowai, in which he was senior officer in quarters. In November, 1941. Captain Allan was appointed to the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla as first lieutenant of the senior officer’s ship. In March, 1942. he took command of a magnetic minesweeper, and six months later became senior officer of the magnetic minesweeping flotilla. When the minesweeping flotilla was disbanded, Captain Allan was posted to Britain, where he served with a number of minesweeping flotillas, and was appointed a reserve commanding officer in the 15th Minesweeping Flotilla. This flotilla cut the channel to the Normandy beaches for the landing craft of the invasion forces on D Day. , After the invasion, Captain Allan was sent to India on loan to the Royal Indian Navy, and given charge of all small craft in the Eastern Command. His base during the Burma campaign was Calcutta. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration in March, 1945. and in December, 1952. was appointed aide-de-camp to the GovernorGeneral.

Other Officers’ Service Commander Hale was a New Zealand officer of the Royal Naval Reserve who was mobilised on the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1942, he transferred to the Royal New Zealand Naval Reserve, and in 1946 to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Commander Simpson joined the Navy as a stoker in 1932. In 1948, he was commissioned as an engineer officer, and is at present in H.M.N.Z.S. Royalist. Commander Hardman is an electrical officer who joined as a telegraphist in 1940. and was commissioned as a radar officer in 1943.

Commander Campbell joined the Wellington Division of the R.N.Z. N.V.R. in 1932, and returned to it after war service when the Volunteer Reserve was reconstituted. He is now the division’s executive officer.

Commander Ross joined the Volunteer Reserve in Christchurch as an ordinary seaman in 1936. He was mobilised on the outbreak of war. and was commissioned in 1940. He was promoted to commander in 1951. and is at present executive officer of H.M.N.Z.S. Royalist. Lieutenant-Commander Taylor will be the first cadet in the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Engineering Branch to reach the rank of Commander. He joined the Navy in 1942, and is at present in the United Kingdom, where he will shortly begin exchange service with the Royal Navy.