NEW HEAD OF THE NAVY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9719, 23 July 1917, Page 3

NEW HEAD OF THE NAVY

CAREER OF SIR E. GEDDES. ORGANISER OF WAR SERVICES. The appointment, of Sir Eric Campbell Geades to bo First Lord of the Admiralty lias been announced. He was born in India of Soots parentage, and is only 41 years of age. Though educated tor the Army, he went to the United Statea, Where he spent four years in lumber and railway work, afterwards gaining further experience in India, la 1903 he returned to England,! and entered the service of tho North-Eastern Railway Company, of which he was deputy-general manager wjien the war broke out. Early in 1915 Lord Kitchener asked Sir Erie Geddes to help in the organisation of the munitions supply. The formation of a Ministry of Munitions was under consideration at the time, and eventually Mr Lloyd George, as first head of the new department, appointed him Deputy Director-General of Munitions Supplv. Rotweon May, 1915. when the Ministry was formed, and the following December he had control of and organised the supply of rifles, machine-guns, small arms, ammunition, optical _ instruments and glass, transport, vehicles and salvage, and also had administ-alive control of the Royal Ordnance Factories of Woolwich, Waltham, and Enlield. At the end of 1915 the Minister for Munitions relieved him of all these duties except the administration of Woolwich Arsenal, wihich had expanded enormously in the montlu during which it was under his control, and he was placed in charge of tho filling of gun ammunition and the organisation of the national filling factories. During the Somme battle, when the gun ammunition supply had become abundant and the filling factories were in full operation. Sir Eric Geddes went to France to report on the transportation situation, and was appointed Director-General of the Military Railways at the War Office, exercising supervision for the War .Office' over transportation in all theatres of war, and also being responsible for obtaining the necessary supplies of material and arranging the necessary personnel for these services. While engaged on the report on transportation in .France he was invited by Sir Douglas Haig to join his staff as Director-General of Transportation. He set to work to reorganise the transportation sendees in France, and when this task was completed, ho was given tho title of In-spector-General of Transportation for all theatres of war. exercising general supervision over the whole of the transportation of the army. Tho reorganisation of the Admiralty last May included the appointment of Sir Eric Geddes as an additional member of the board in the revived office of Controller of the Navy. Ho was then made -osponsible for fulfilling the shipbuilding requirements of the Admiralty, tiie Wat Office, and the Ministry of Shipping, and also for tho production of natal armaments and •munitions. Sir Eric Geddes was knighted in Jane ot last year.