NEW NAVAL HEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 22 September 1931, Page 6

NEW NAVAL HEAD

CAPTAIN F. BURGES-WATSON

APPOINTED.

AUCKLAND, Sept. 18,

Advice has been received' at Auckland of the appointment" 1 of Captain Fischer Burge s Watson, D. 5.0., as Commodore of the New Zealand Divinsion -of idle Royal Navy, successing Rear-Admiral Blake.

Captain Watson is expected to arrive in New Zealand next April. He is at present captain of H.M.I?. Nelson, flagship of the Atlantic I leet. The elder son of the late Bear-Ad-miral; Burges-Watson, whose wife was a native of Sydney. Captain Watson was born in ,September 1884. He entered the navy in H.M.S. Britannia in 1899, going to sea* as a midshipman in 1900. When the Great War broke out, Captain Watson was a lieutenant commander in charge of H. M.S. Loyal, a destroyer - in the first division of the third destroyer flotilla. In October 1914, this division, led by the cruiser Undaunted, attacked, and sank, four German destroyers off the Dutch coast. Lieutenant-Commander Burges Watson was promoted to commander in December, 1914, serving in destroyers ■for most of the war. In September, 1918, he was appointed to the command of H.M.S. .Shakespeare,, a de troyer flotilla leader, and was in her at the time of the Armistice. He was promoted captain in 1921. Captain Watson is well known in the world of athletic sport, having been a keen Rugby footballer, playing for the Navy in 1907-11, and for England in 1908-09. He was president of the first Royal Oak Courtsmartial, and was .naval assistant to Admiral Sir Michael Hodges as Second Sea Lord, and accompanied him to H.M.S. Nelson as flag-captain. He was married in 1909 and has three daughters.