GUNNERY EXPERT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23212, 5 December 1938, Page 11

GUNNERY EXPERT

SIR G. G. ASTON DEAD SECRET SERVICE WORK (Received December 4, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. S The death is announced of MajorGeneral Sir George Aston. Sir George Grey Aston was a naval gunnery expert. He was "born-in December, 1861, and educated at Westminster School and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He was an officer of the naval brigade attached to the expedition which, in 1884, fought its way up the Nile to Khartoum in a vain effort to save General Gordon. After three years in the Intelligence

Department of the Admiralty, he passed . the Staff College ntid was made intelligence officer to the Mediterranean Fleet. From 1896 to 1899 he was professor of fortification at the Royal Naval College, being then sent to South Africa; where for services in the war with the Boers he was mentioned in dispatches. lteturning to the Staff College, he was D.A.A.G. there. In 1907 lie was promoted brigadiergeneral and appointed to the General Staff in South Africa.. He'was recalled* to England in 1912 and knighted (K.C.8.). He was afterwards employed by the Admiralty AVar Staff on secret service which contributed to the complete destruction of the elaborate German spy organisation in Britain when the world-war broke out. He retircrT in ■ 1917, with the rank of major-genera • He wrote * "History of the Great 3Var» ff<?rka.