KING AS OFFICER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 11

KING AS OFFICER

NAVY AND AIR FORCE

DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR

(From "The Posts" Representative.)

VANCOUVER, February 17.

His Majesty the King, as an officer of the Navy and the Air Force, during and after the Great War, is the subject of personal reminiscences by officers and men who served with him.

Sergeant Alfred Furniss, who is now H.M. Customs Officer on the United States border, at Douglas, near here, was at the King's side throughout the Battle of Jutland, in gun turret A of H.M.S. Collingwood. Prince Albert, as he then was,, had charge of operating range and sights for the guns in the turret. ...

"I .myself was taking orders from the Prince," Furniss told your correspondent. "We were doing independent firing towards eventide, the Prince doing his share, as well as the rest of the turret crew. We remained close to our action stations throughout the night and late, into the next day, the glorious first of June. Had not that North Sea mist rolled in on the two fleets, when the action was beginning to get hot, we might now be reading history in a different light." .

"My career should have been in the Navy," said the Prince when, in-1918; he was Second-in Command of No. 4 Squadron of the Royal Air Force Cadet Wing at Hastings. A wet day prevented work in the open, and H.R.H. asked the cadets what they would like him to talk about. %

Someone asked: "Won't you tell us about your experiences in the Navy, and how you came to leave it?"

With a wry face, the Prince said: "Please don't ask me to do that. I j think ihy: career should have been in the Navy, but I had a very bad stomach. I had a couple of surgical operations, and then had to give it up." INSTRUCTING ON THE SALUTE. ■ An amusing incident, revealing the King's democratic outlook, is related by a Canadian airman, A. L. Wainwright, who was one of the cadets. '■"I have a very unpleasant task to perform this morning," the Prince said, "As you know, I have to obey orders, just as you do. I have to teach you ■something I am quite sure you are able to do—the proper method of saluting."

During" the instruction, the sergeantmajor, a former Guardsman, was insistent that the Prince take up a position, and that the cadets file past and salute him!'

The Prince thought otherwise."There's a'tree-over "there," he said; "let the tree take the salute." So they filed past, saluting it, under the direction of a somewhat crestfallen sergeantmajor./ "The Prince was the most popular officer in the whole Wing," said Wainwright.'"a great deal more democratic than the others, most of whom had served in the Guards Brigade. It never occurred to us that he would one day become King."