SIR ERIC GEDDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17040, 23 December 1918, Page 7

SIR ERIC GEDDES.

DEMOBILISATION WORK. A. »nd N.Z. LONDON. Dec. 20. Sir Eric Gcddes, formerly First Lord of the Admiralty, has been appointed to coordinate tho activities of the various Government departments regarding demobilisation.

Sir Eric Geddes, whose resignation from the position of First Lord of tho Admiralty was announced last week, exemplifies fully the success of Mr. Lloyd George's innovation of appointing to the Cabinet men of proved organising ability, but without previous political experience. Sir Eric Geddes was born in India, where his father, a Scottish engineer, was engaged in bridge-building, At the age of 17 he left home, working his way to America, where he landed penniless. After remaining in the United States three years, working successively in the Carnegie steelworks, a lumber camp, and on an Ohio railway, he made his way to India, where he became manager of a great forestry enterprise. Ho next entered the service of the North-eastern Railway, and had reached the position of Deputy-General Manager when the war broke out. He raised a pioneer battalion, and wished to accompany it to France, but was appointed to an important post in the Munitions Department. Undertaking tho supervision of Woolwich Arsenal, he perfected the organisation of tlio shell-making system. His next appointment was in France, where he was gent to organise tho construction of roads and railways behind the trenches, Here again his success was conspicuous. Ho developed a system of transportation known as tho Geddes system. Ho also became director of military railways in Britain, and was entrusted with the organisation of the traffic at all the ports of Britain and France. Next he was made Controller of the Navy, and in July, 1917, succeeded Lord Jellicoe as First Lord of the Admiralty.