NAVAL OFFICER WITH FINE RECORD

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5280, 17 December 1946, Page 3

NAVAL OFFICER WITH FINE RECORD

WO'RK OF LITTLE SHIPS SIIORTLY TO TAKE UP RESIDENCE fN ROTORUA. After service in the Navy. throughout the years of wai', Lie'U;tenant-Com-mander J. Mason, D.S.C., is shortly arriving' in Rotorua to joiri. his I parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Mason, J of Eruera Street. Advice to this effecfc | has ben received from their son, who left England recently in linei* Dominion Monarch. He is aecompanied by his English wife. After at-tending the Preston and Blackburn Grammar Schools in Eng- ! land, Lieutenant-Commander Mason j went on to Merton 'College, Oxford, | where he gained his M.A. degree with honours. At the outbreak of war he joined the R.N.V.R. and was accepted for a commission. Iie was given eom^ mand of the 73-ton motor launch Chico, which before the war was owned by Sir Makolm Campbell. Jusfc before Dunkirk, when the G'ermans Avere driving deep into France, Lieu-tenant-Commander Mason and his crew landed soldiers at Ambleteuse, nortli of Bolougne. A raid was eai'ried out and the ship stood by for three hours until the men returned. After that, two trips vvere made from Dover to Calais to bring baek 50 or so sur- , vivors from the besieged town. Eight Trips at Dunkirk. The evacuation of the British ! Army from Dunkirk was the next fea- j ture of his colourful war experiences. j In all he made eight cross-Channel J trips during the time of the evaeua- ! tion, on^ one oecasion bringing baek , 227 men who erammed every available ■ spaee on the tiny ship except the | wheelhc'use. For three ;days, 'Chioo J went baek and forth to the shell-torn j beaehes, from which she removed over j 1000 men tq the safety of the English j eoast. Lieut-Commander Mason re- j ceived the award of the Distinguished j Ferviee Cross, with which he was | later invested by the King at Bucking- j hani Palace. Perhaps his greatest i honour was the taking on board of , the evaeuattion offi'eer himself, the j closing act of a famous page in Bri- j tish history. The Poet Laureate, Mr. j John Masefi'eld, in his hook on the • evacuation, "Nine Days' Wonder," j acknowltUged the informatsjon supplied by Lieut-Commander Mason.' After the fall of France, his ship joined in the hattle of the English Channel, the job being the servicing of buoys and navigation aids. Crico was attacked by German aireraft on | . numerous o'-easions and in an attack j . in March, 1941, the yacht destroyed | an enemy bomber which clisintegrated } . as it hit the sea. In another attack { . off Beachy Head, 10 5001b bombs wero j ■ dropped near the little ship, one of ; - them only 10 yards away. When the | , Folkestdne li^hthouse ivas bombed, | ( Lieut-Commander Mason was there ! : and his ship took two injured men : j aboard. The yacht was also heavily | j shelle.i from guns on the French j j coasi, one shell fallinir cnlv four yards ; i away.

"Monty" Seasick. Lieut-Commander Mason played his part in the AlJied invasion of France and was privileged to take FieldMarshal Montgomery across the Channel on one ocacsion. The famous soluier's stomach did not react favourably to tho trip and he was ext.i'emeiy sick! As tho war's centre gradually moved to the Far Ea.st,' Lieut-Com-mander Mason was sent to Malaya in a minesweeper and was present at the Japanese surrendel' to Britain at Penang. Later, he moved into Singa[>ore wtih tho British Fleet and then returned to Britain. Aged 24 at the time o£ receiving ais decoration, Lieut-Commander -Vl^son was an all-round sportsman, leing captain of his school and college football teams. His tutor in' English vvas the well known authority on England, and the author of the hook 'Undertones of War," Edmund Blunien. Had it not been for the war he ,vould have been in New Zealand many (-ears ago, where he hoped to take up. :eaching. Mrs. Mason during the war was an iffieer in the Wrens.