N.Z. NAVAL UNIT

Evening Star, Issue 23100, 28 October 1938, Page 13

N.Z. NAVAL UNIT

NEW COMMODORE CAPTAIN RIVETT-CARNAC APPOINTED [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Oct. 27. With the departure of H.M.S. Achilles from Auckland early in December another change in command of the sea-going squadron of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy will occur, said the Minister of Defence (Mr F. Jones) to-day. Captain J. W Rivett-Car-nac, at present in command of H.M. Leander, which he brought out from England last year, will become commodore of the squadron in succession to Commodore I. G. Glennie, who is to take the Achilles to England for recommissioning. The Minister said the Achilles would =ail with her present complement, including the New Zealanders, When the cruiser arrived in England the Imperial ratings would be paid

off and be replaced by other Imperial men. The New Zealanders would return with the ship to Auckland next year. It was not yet known, Mr Jones said, who would be appointed to the command of the Achilles for the return voyage. Commodore Glennie would leave her in England because his period of service with the New Zealand Division would by then have been completed. At the time of his appointment to New Zealand Captain Rivett-Carnac held the distinction of being the only officer on the active list of the Royal Navy who had completed the courses at all three staff colleges—the Navy, Army, and Air Force. He relinquished command of the antiaircraft cruiser Coventry, with which he had been for a year, during the Mediterranean emergency at the time of the war in Abyssinia, shortly before he received his New Zealand appointment. As a lieutenant he was a_ rangefinding expert of the Grand Fleet during the Great War, and he gained the Distinguished Service Cross for service as a gunnery and executive officer in the cruiser Cleopatra during her Baltic service in 1919. When he becomes commodore of the sea-going squadron, Captain Rivett-Carnac will be the third officer to have held the command this year. Rear-admiral the Hon, E. R. Drummond was in command for the first part of the year until his return to England, since when Commodore Glennie has occupied the position. Yet another officer of the same rank. Commodore H. E. Horan, took up the new appointment of chief of the Naval Staff and First Naval Member df the New Zealand Naval Board when the reorganisation of the command was made following Rear-admiral Drummond’s return. This is the first time in the history of the division that so many changes have occurred in the command in one year.