FIRST CRUISER SQUADRON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22487, 4 February 1935, Page 10

FIRST CRUISER SQUADRON

REAR-ADMIRAL G. BLAKE'S COMMAND (From Oub Own Cobbespondent.) LONDON, January 5. The Admiralty announce that the appointment has been approved of Rearadmiral Geoffrey Blake, C. 8., D. 5.0.. to be Rear-admiral Commanding First Cruiser Squadron, in succession to Rearadmrial John K. im Thurn, C. 8., C.M.G., C.8.E., to date July, 1635. « This change follows the normal routine, as Rear-admiral im Thurn will complete two years in command of the squadron in June next. It normally includes the four cruisers of the London class, but one of them, the Sussex, has been lent to the Australian Navy, and H.M.A.S. Australia is on her way to England (with the Duke of Gloucester^, and will join the squadron as an exchange cruiser in the spring. Rear-admiral Blake has been Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Supplies and Transport since September, 1932. No successor to him at the Admiralty has yet been announced. He entered the navy from Winchester in 1897, and was a commander throughout the late war. At the Jutland battle he was gunnery and principal control officer in the fleet flagship Irons Duke, and wa» awarded the D.S.O. for his services. From January, 1917, he was executive officer of the Queen Elizabeth, flagship of Admiral Beatty, and was promoted to captain in the first list after the Armistice. He was commodore and rear-admiral commanding the New Zealand Division of the Navy from 1929 to 1932.