Silver Tray Sent Back To Battalion

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 14

Silver Tray Sent Back To Battalion

(New Zealand Presr Association)

AUCKLAND, April 30. A silver tray presented to a renowned British warship as a mark of gratitude for evacuating a New Zealand battalion from a tight spot in Greece 20 years ago has been returned to use as a trophy for inter-services golf tournaments. On the night of April 28, 1941, soldiers of the Auckland 24th Battalion were the last complete British fighting unit on Greek soil. At any time they were likely to be captured by the Germans. At midnight the Navy arrived. Small craft ferried the exhausted men out to the cruiser Ajax, of the Battle of the River Plate fame, which had taken them to Greece only six weeks before, and to her two attendant destroyers, the Hotspur and Havoc.

The packed ships returned the battalion to Egypt. The officers of the battalion presented the Ajax with a handsome silver tray in gratitude. When the cruiser was broken up after the war the Admiraltv returned the tray to New Zealand. By then the

24th Battalion had disbanded and the tray remained in the naval store at Devonport. There it was found by Lieutenant-Commander W. E. V. Lowe, chairman of the Combined Services’ Sports Committee, who was looking for a suitable trophy for the inter-services golf tournament. Within 24 hours the senior surviving officer of the battalion, Mr A. C. W. Mantell-Harding, of Wellington, had been traced and gave his approval for its new use.

Another interested person was Surgeon-Commander J. MacDonald, now of H.M.N.Z.S. Philomel.. Twenty years ago he was a young medical officer in H.M.S. Ajax.

Silversmiths have removed the dents and scratches of years of wartime use and engravers have added the Ajax crest, the battalion patch, the divisional insignia and an additional inscription. Yesterday, 20 years after the evacuation, the trophy was made available for use.