BRITISH SAILORS’ SOCIETY

Grey River Argus, 29 March 1948, Page 8

BRITISH SAILORS’ SOCIETY

Major-General, the Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Sykes, who will arrive in New Zealand by air on Tuesday, March 30, has had a career as colourful as it has been varied. He has served Britain and the British Commonwealth zealously and his tasks have taken him to many parts of the world. / After serving as a trooper in the Boer War, Sir Frederick gained a commission in the 15th. Hussars and served with that Regiment, in India and South Africa. In 1910 he learned to fly and was one of the first hundred to obtain a pilot’s certificate. He was then on the General Staff at the War Office where he lost no opportunity of pressing upon the authorities the urgency of developing an “air arm.” After two years of pleading and persuading the authorities, the Royal Flying Corps was established by Royal Warrant in May 1912 and he was appointed in command. By August, 1914, five squadrons out of the eight that had been planned, were ready to face the most searching of all tests, ordeal by battle. The reconnaissance performed by the R.F.C. was responsible for saving the B.E’.F. during its retreat from Mons and at the Marne.

While rendering conspicuous service in France, Sir Frederick was commissioned to proceed to Gallipoli to ascertain and report upon “air requirements.” As a result of that report he was appointed to command the Royal Naval Air Service in the Eastern Mediterranean. Later, after serving on the inter-allied staff of the Supreme War Council at Versailles, he became Chief of Air Staff in 1918 and was responsible for the formation of the R.A.F. by the amalgamated of the. R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S. In his capacity as Chief of Air Staff he .attended the Peace Confer'ence in 1919. He was first ControllerGeneral of Civil Aviation in Britain from 1919-1922. He married the daughter of Mr Bonar Law, onetime Premier of Britain. Before and after his eventful Governorship of Bombay, Sir Frederick was M.P. for the Hallam Division of Sheffield and Chairman of important Government Committees covering such subjects as the Meteorological Service (1920-1922), Broadcasting (1923) and Miners’ Welfare (1934), where his wide experience and penetrating vision proved to be of inestimable value.

In 1934 Sir Frederick Sykes became Honorary Treasurer of the British Sailors’ Society in Britain, which position he still holds, and at the request of his fellow directors in London he is now on a tour of the Society’s branches in Australia and New Zealand in company with the Society’s General Secretary, Mr Robert Stanley Heesom. Mr Heesom established the Society’s work at Haifa in 1935, while in 1936 he went to Malta, where, at the request of the Naval Authorities the Society had agreed to establish the first “Under Twenty” Club for boy ratings of the Royal Navy. Upon returning he was appointed “special duties” and during the early part of the war organised the work in connection with ship-wrecked crews on the North-east coast and when the intensive air-raids on London commenced he returned to become Superintendent of London Hostels. He was appointed Assistant-Secretary in 1944 and General Secretary in 1946. Always keen on youth work, Mr Heesom ' was Commissioner for Sea Scouts in London until pressure of the Society’s work caused his resignation recently.