A GALLANT VETERAN.
THE CAPTAIN ADMIRAL, H.Kxu (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, September 2. I had the pleasure of travelling across to the front the other day in company with one of the most interesting figures of the naval war. At the outbreak there was 1 an instant rally to the colours of the great body of naval officers who, in the piping days of peace, had retired from the service with still a good many years of usefulness in them. They took what rank was offered to them, and two at least who were Admirals trod the deck again as captains.
One of these was Admiral John Locke Marx, K.N.,- who has seen tropical service in Niger, Mombasa, and the Pacific Islands, and retired as a full admiral in 1913. Though 62 years of age he went to sea again as Captain Marx, R.N.R., and he volunteered with the spirit of a midshipman for service in Q boats. The "Q," we are now permitted to say, is the innocent-looking nondescript trader —either in trade or steam —which has provided some of the most desperate anti-submarine fights of the Avar. It was* in Q's that Lieut.-Commander W. E. Sanders and Captain Gordon Campbell won their Y.C.'s. And in a Q our veteran admiral put to sea. His career in the Avar has been a romance. In two fights at close quarters he saim his quarry each time, and on a third occasion another ship assisted in the same end. Admiral Marx now wears, alongside the Niger medal and the bronze and silver decorations of the Royal Human Society, the C. 8., and the D. 5.0., Avon in his Q.
Admiral Marx is still remarkably fresh and vigorous physically and mentally, and he recounts with, confidence and accuracy the incidents attending the hoisting of the German flnw in New Guinea. For he was then in command of H.M.S. Swinger, the warship which encountered three German ships in Matupi and received there the first news of the "Flagcenhissing" in New Guinea.. Captain Marx at once sailed for Cooktownto report to Admiral Erskine. and the British protectorate was forthwith' amplified.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 21 October 1918, Page 7
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356A GALLANT VETERAN. Greymouth Evening Star, 21 October 1918, Page 7
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