NAVAL MAN'S RUIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 40, 10 November 1937, Page 9

NAVAL MAN'S RUIN

« Officer Who Was Dismissed the Service COURT MARTIAL Ruinous «ffects of shattered ambition upon the career of a young Naval officer wero described in a cpurt niartial at Portsmouth which resulted in his being dismissed the Sorvico. The officer, it was sa'id, bolioved his career had been ruined when he was court martialled on the evidence of a woman, and he then lost ambition. He is Lieutenant Nigel George Hallett, serving in H.M.S. Revenge, .who pleaded guilty to wilfully disobeyipg the lawful .command of his superior officer, Captain F. A. Buckley, of II.M.S. Malaya, that he was not to sleep on ahore or remain out of his ship for the night without the previous sanction of ihe commanding officer, and to being absent without leave from 6 a.m. on February 20 to 9.4B p.m. on February 21. •Lieutenant Hallett read a state* ment to the Court in which he said he did not attempt to justify his conduct, but rather to explain the circumstanoes in which he acted. Those circumstanoes had affected his whole outlook on general Naval service, and constituted, he maintained, mitigating circumstances. Up to August last year ne was^a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm of 18 months' standing, and was devoted to the worlt. "A Sense of Bitterness." "While engaged.in the work of torpedo bombing at Gosport he was reported by a civilian woman for a technical offence. He faqed an R.A.F. court martial, and on the evidence of . this woman was sentenced to lose seniority in the R.A.F., six months' seniority in the Royal Navy, and relieved of further duties in the Fleet Air Arm. That, declared Lieutenant Hallett, was the end "of all his ambition. In the middle of October last he handed his resignation to the Admiralty, but was told there was no chance of this being accepied. He joined the Malaya, and found himself unable to regover from tho blow which the circumstances had delivered and to take a proper interest in his work. A sense of bitterness was ranklmg more and more, and his attitude was entirely a self-centred one.. His career had already been ruined, and that was the attitude of mind under which he absented himself without leave. 1 . The Court accepted the. plea of guilty, and Lieutenant Hallett called Captain Buckley as a witness as to character. I Captain Buckley stated. Lieutenant Hallett's character was satisfactory while under his command. The A-cting-Deputy Judge Advocate read Lieutenant Hallett's record, which showed that the R.A.F. courtmartlal before which he appeared related to a charge of flying unnecessarily low at Salisbury, Hampshire, on August 10 last year. The records also showed that the six months' loss of seniority as a naval officer was remitted. Lieutenant Hallett having pleaded guilty, the Court considered the charges proved, and therefore ordered him to be dismissed the Service.