EARL JELLICOE DEAD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 304, 21 November 1935, Page 9

EARL JELLICOE DEAD

AFTER SHORT ILLNESS. FORMER GOVERNOR-GENERAL. SPLENDID CAREER ENDS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Extraordinary.) Received November 21, 10.5 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 20. The death has occurred of Earl Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.E.0., a former Governor-General of New Zealand Earl Jellicoe died at 6.30 p.m. in a London nursing home, his wife and all the members of the family being present. Earl Jellicoe attended the Armistice service and the next day cut his hand badly with a splinter from a champagne bottle when naming the express locomotive British Legion on November 13. He was ordered to bed-for a chill and the first bulletin issued on November 17 stated that his engagements had been cancelled for three weeks. One lung was slightly affected. Daily bulletins reported progress up to the day of his death. During his illness his interest in the returned men was unabated and from his bed on November 17 he jointly sent a letter to the Times with Viscount Allenby appealing to the public to buy the disabled soldiers’ work then being exhibited in London. DISTINGUISHED CAREER. The first Ear] Jellicoe was born in 1859 and was the Governor-General and Com-mander-in-Chief of New Zealand from 1920 until 1924. Created an Earl in 1925, he prior to that date bore the title of .Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, an honour bestowed in 1918 in recognition of his distinguished service in the Great War. Earl Jellicoe was affectionately known in the service as “Silent John,” a title of sincere respect, and his term of residence in New Zealand as GovernorGeneral has made him hosts of friends in this country. He was not only efficient to a point, but he was steeled by experience in every branch of his profession. Though physically of medium height and of spare build, he was emphatically a “big man.” He spared neither himself nor his officers and men when service conditions required effort, but was generous in his praise of them, as his dispatches show. He entered the Navy at the age of 13, and was a lieutenant on board the Agineourt during the mombardment of Alexandria in 1882. He was in the illfated Victoria when she was rammed and sunk by the Camperdown in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1893, being one of the few survivors of the terrible disaster. Earl Jellicoe attained the rank of captain in 1897, and ten years later he was made rear-admiral. It was intended that he should at the end of 1914 succeed Sir George'Callaghan, but when war was seen to be unavoidable the appointment was hurried forward, and on August 5 it was announced that he had been placed in supreme command of the Fleet. Earl Jellicoe was then the ablest of the admirals of the younger school. He saw active service in the Egyptian War of 1882, and again in China in 1898-1901. During the expedition for the relief of the Pekin Legations he commanded the Naval Brigade, and acted as chief staff officer to Admiral Sir E. H. Seymour. During the fighting at Peitsang he was . severely wounded. While still a lieutenant in' his ’teens on the Monarch he was awarded the Board of Trade’s silver medal for gallantry in saving life at sea. He became a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1908. and was appointed Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty in December, 1912. In May, 1912, he cruised, as a guest of the Kaiser, in the Zeppelin Hausa, and from her deck looked down on Berlin. He took part in the famous naval action at Jutland, where liis skilful handling of the Grand Fleet is now coming to bo fully appreciated, and left his last command afloat to become First Sea Lord. It was largely due to his labours that the submarine menace was overcome. After the war Earl Jellicoe was sent on a special mission to the Dominions to advise on reorganisation of their navies. For his war services he received the thanks of Parliament and tbe sum of £50.000, and at the end of 1918 was raised to the Peerage. In 1925, when he returned from New Zealand, he was created an Earl.

The flag at the Palmerston North Post Office w;ft to-day flown at halfmast out of respect to the memory of the late Lord Jellicoe.