CAPTAINS THREE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 9

CAPTAINS THREE

Commanders Of British Cruisers

(Bx

S.D.W.)

Captain H. H. Harwood, 0.8. E., who is in command of H.M.S. Exeter, is also commodore commanding the South American Division of the American and West Indies Squadron. He specialized in torpedoes in 1912 and served during the Great War as torpedo officer in the armoured cruiser Sutlej and the battleship Royal Sovereign; In 1922-24 he served in the Plans Division at the Admiralty. He was promoted captain on December 31, 1928. He served as flag-captain in H.M.S. London, flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron and afterward for two years on the staff of the Royal Naval War College. He took up his present appointment in September, 1936. The South American Division of the America and West Indies Squadron was reconstituted in 1931 “in order to further British interests in South American waters.” Captain C. H. L. Woodhouse is in command of H.M.S. Ajax to which he was appointed in October, 1937. During the early months of the Great War he was a lieutenant in H.M.S. Bristol in which he was present at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on December 8, 1914, when Admiral Graf von Spee’s Pacific Squadron was destroyed by Admiral'Sturdee’s squadron. On that occasion the Bristol was detached by Admiral Sturdee to sink the store-ships that were following the German squadron. Captain Woodhouse was present in H.M.S. Malaya at the Battle of Jutland. He was promoted to his present rank on December 31, 1934, and is, therefore of the same seniority as Captain Parry. Officers of H.M.S. Achilles. Captain W. E. Parry, who is in command of H.M.S. Achilles, is, like Captain Harwood, a specialist in torpedoes. He passed out at the head of his term of cadets from Dartmouth and the training cruiser Cumberland and gained five “firsts” in his examination tor the rank of lieutenant. He served during the Great War as torpedo officer of the light cruiser Birmingham in the Grand Fleet. He was promoted captain on December 31, 1934. In 1936-37 be was in command of the Anti-Submarine Establishment at Portland, and in 1938

he served at the Imperial Defence College. Captain Parry was appointed to H.M.S. Achilles, his first sea command in that rank, on January 27 of this year, succeeding Captain I. G. Glennie, who now commands H.M.S. Hood. The officers serving under Captain Parry in H.M.S. Achilles are as follows: Commander D. M. L. Neame; Lieutenant-Commander P. T. A. Love. Lieutenants R. E. Washbourn (gunnery), P. P. M. Green (torpedo), G. G. Cowburn (navigating), F. E. Brooking and W. Moresby, Commander (Eng.) FT W. Head, Lieutenants (E.) J. A. R. Abbott and C. F. Morrow. Captain Royal Marines, J. Lampen, PaymasterCommander H. T. Isaac, Surgeon-Lieu-tenant C. G. Hunter, M. 8.. PaymasterLieutenant J. D. Trythall, Sub-Lieuten-ant I F. Sommerville, Paymaster SubLieutenant P. H. G. Richardson, Schoolmaster C. Carr. Gunners H. T. Burchell, E. J. Watts and G. R. Davis-Goll (torpedo). Warrant Shipwright P. S. Watt. Warrant Engineers A. J. T. Shoring, H. G. Slade and C. H. J. Stone, Warrant Electrician J. W. Swift. There are two New Zealand officers in the Achilles, Lieutenant R. E. Washbourn, of Nelson, and Gunner DavisGoff, of Wellington A large proportion of the ratings,are, of course, young New Zealanders.