BRITISH NAVY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21315, 17 October 1932, Page 10

BRITISH NAVY

/LATEST PROMOTIONS THREE REAR-ADMIRALS LONDON, Oct. 15 The latest list of naval promotions includes Captains L. S. Holbrook, H. E. Dannreuther and E. C. Boyle, V..C., all promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral. Rear-Admiral L. S. Holbrook has had more than 36 years' naval service. He specialised in gunnery, and during the early, part of the war was gunnery officer pf the cruiser Devonshire. After promotion in December, 1914, he was flag commander in the Grand Fleet to Vice-Ad-mirals Sir Martyn Jerram, Sir Herbert Heath, and Sir Dudley de Chair. He was promoted captain in 1920, and in 1922-24 commanded the cruiser Curlew on the America and West Indies station, after whicji he served as a member of the OrdCommittee. In 1929 he was lent to The Commonwealth Government as second member of the' Naval Board, and in February, 1930, he transferred to the command of the cruiser Canberra. As commodore, first-class, he temporarily succeeded Rear-Admiral E. R. G. R. Evans, C.8., D.5.0., in May, 1931, in command of the Australian. Squadron. Last April lie was relieved by .Rear-Admiral R.C. Dalglish. Rear-Admiral H. E.. Dannreuther, who was 51 last December, has been in the Navy since 1895. He was gunnery officer of the battie : cruiser Invincible in 1914-16, and was the senior of the six survivors of that ship when she was blown up and sunk with the loss of 1026 lives in the Battle of Jutland. He .was in the Invincible. also in the action in the Heligoland Bight in August, 1914, and in the Rattle ..of the Falkland Islands on December, 8, 1914- For. the last, two years of the war . he. .was .commander in . the battlecruiser Renown. Promoted to captain in 1920, ho has since been vice-president of the Chemical Defence Committee;, has commanded the cruiser Dauntless in the Mediteranean; has been captain-superin-tendent of training in the Royal Australian Navy; has commanded the aircraftcarrier Eagle; and, since November 1, 1931,. has been in command of Portsmouth Naval. Barracks. E. C- Boyle. V.C., was serving in the battleship St. Vincent as a .lieutenant in 1913. Later he was transferred to the submarine service, in which ha greatly distinguished himself. During the. Gallipoli campaign he was i:a command of submarine El 4, in which he made several daring, cruises through the Dardanelles .and- into the Sea of Marmora. On April 25, 1915, the day of the landing at 'Anzac, he sank two Turkish transports and ono gunboat, this exploit gaining for him the Victoria Cross. In 1918-20 he commanded the Australian submarine flotilla. He was promoted to captain on June 30, 1920, and from 1926 to 1928 was captain of the dockyard, deputy-super-intendent, and King's Harbourmaster at Devonport. " EVANS OF THE BROKE " CHARGE OF AFRICA STATION Tt was officially announced recently that Rear-Admiral Edward R. G. R. Evans, C.8., D.5.0., is to be Commander-in-Chief, Africa Station, in succession to Vice-Admiral Hugh J. Twcedic, as from January 16 next. Honours have fallen' thick upon RearAdmiral Evans, known the. world over as " Evans of tho Broke." He became the Navy's youngest rear-admiral in 1928, when ho was 47 years of age, and was the youngest commander in 1912, when he was barely 31, in recognition of his services with Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition. Evans was the last man to see Captain Scott when the latter was cnlv 145 miles from the South Pole, and he took over command when the advance guard perished. One of the most notable incidents of the Great War was in April, 1917, when Evans, in H.M.S. Broke, together with , H.M.S. Swift, commanded by Captain A. „ M. Peck, encountered six German destroyers in tho Dover Straits. The Broke torpedoed one of the enemy vessels, then rammed another, and defeated her crew in a hand-fo-halid fight. Evans commanded the battle-cruiser Repulse for two years, and after his promotion to rear-admiral he spent a similar period in command of le Royal Australian Navy.