ROYAL HEW ZEALAND NAVY

Evening Star, Issue 25770, 17 April 1946, Page 9

ROYAL HEW ZEALAND NAVY

COMMISSIONS FROM RESERVE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, April 16. After four gears' service as captain of H.M.N.Z.S. Philomel, Commander J. C. Elworthy, 0.8. E., R.N. (retired), has relinquished his appointment. He has been succeeded in command of Philomel, which is used chiefl.y as a drafting depot for the Royal New Zealand Navy, by, Commander P. Phipps, D.S.C. and American Navy Cross, formerly of the R.N.Z.N.V.R., who has accepted a short-term commission in the Royal New Zealand Navy. This is one of a number of changes made and pending which will result in the appointment of several R.N.Z.N.V.R. officers to short-term commissions-in the Royal New Zealand Navy. They will fill duties formerly carried out by Royal Navy (retired) and R.N.Z.N.V.R. officers. Commander Elworthy has had a varied career of service in the Royal Navy, and was formerly _ A.D.C. to Lord Bledisloe during his term as Governor-General. For the past six years he has served in Philomel, the first two as executive' officer and the remaining four as captain. Commander Phipps has a distinguished war record. At the outbreak of hostilities he held a commission in the R.N.Z.N.V.R. He was awarded the Distingnshed Service Cross when in command of a minesweeper ou convoy duty in the English Channel. He returned to New Zealand in 1942 in command of the corvette Moa, which was associated with Kiwi in the destruction of a large Japanese submarine. Moa was sunk off Guadalcanal in a- Japanese bombing attack in April, 1943.