NAVAL PRIZES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 203, 25 May 1934, Page 13

NAVAL PRIZES

New Zealand Officer’s Success

As announced the other day, Lieutenant R. E. Washbourn, who is serving in H.M.S. Diomede, has been awarded the Ronald Megaw Memorial prize for 1932-33, offered each year to the sub-lieutenant obtaining highest place in the examinations for lientenaut. Lieutenant Washbourn, who is a member of a well-known New Zealand family, joined the Royal Navy in January, 1928, as a special entry cadet in H.M.S. Erebus, and served as a midshipman in the cruiser London. He, last year, won the Goodenough medal for gunnery. The Ronald Megaw Memorial prize was founded in 1906 in memory of Midshipman Ronald Megaw, who was killed accidentally on November 11, 1904, while at general quarters on board H.M.S. Montagu. The interest on a sum of £lOOO, given by the father and held upon trust by the Admiralty, is employed in providing a prize, consisting of a presentation sword and its accoutrements and selected books or instruments, to be awarded annually to the sub-lieutenant who obtains the highest place during the preceding year in the various examinations, covering navigation, gunnery, torpedoes, mathematics, etc., prescribed for officers qualifying for the rank of lieutenant. The Goodenough medal is provided from a fund founded in memory of Captain James G. Goodenough, C. 8., G.C.M., who died on August 20, 1875, while serving as commodore on the Australian station from wounds inflicted with poisoned arrows in an unprovoked attack by natives of Santa Cruz. The Goodenough medal is conferred on the sub-lieutenant who, when qualifying for the rank of lieutenant, passes the best examination of his year in gunnery, provided lie has also taken a firstclass certificate in seamanship.