THE AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2600, 7 September 1909, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON

CRUISERS BEING EE-COMMIS-

SIONED

SYDNEY, August 21. Captain E. W. E. Wemyss has been appointed to the command of H.MiS. Cambrian, which will be re-commission-ed shortly at Colombo. Captain Wemyss joined the naval service in July, 1879, was promoted lieutenant in 1889, and captain in June, 1906. ■ He served on the battleship Monarch at the bombard.ment of Alexandria, 1882, and during that campaign (medal with clasps and Khedive’s star) was lieutenant of the cruiser Raleigh' in the suppression of slaving on the East ; Coast of Africa, and shared in the capture of several dhows, and also took part in the expedition organised by Sir..EVGr, D. Bedford, in 1894, against Fodi Silah, a raiding and slaving West African Chief, and which destroyed his strongholds (mentioned in despatches, medal with clasp), . Qn re-commissioning Commander William F. Blunt joins the third-class cruiser Pioneer. This officer has served afloat for 26 years, and has held his present rank of commander tor five. He served previously on the tionCommander S. H. ttadcliffe has been posted, to the command of the thirdclass cruiser Pyramus on recommissioning. He has served afloat for 23 years, and reached his present rank in June, 1904. He was a lieutenant of the cruiser Fox in the operations against the Mad Mullah in 1904, and was at the capture of Fort Illig, an action m which our bluejackets displayed much gallantry (medal with clasp). Commander Henry B. Montagu, who has been appointed skipper of the cruiser Psyche on recommissioning, has had the advantage of having seen active service. Entering the Royal Navy in 1886, and reachingliis present grade' five years ago, he was present as a lieutenant of the gunboat Sparrow (now the N.Z. training ship Amokura), at the bombardment of the palace of the Sultan of Zanzibar, August, 1896, when Sir Harry Rawson turned his guns on it. ; ■ ■