SANDERS, V.C.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1917, Page 6

SANDERS, V.C.

NEW ZEALAND'S NAVAL HERO. (Auckland Star Correspondent.) London, June '2(!. Il there i.i one thing more than another for which we look for at the end of the war it is the "release," as the •kinematographer calls it, of the stories of derring-do done by our Navy. Among them the Dominion has shone, and a tiny ray of light, (scaped last Saturday when all the English Press announced laconically of Acting-Lieutenant (now Lieut.-Commander) W. E. Sanders, R.N.R., that he was awarded the V.C. "in recognition of his conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness and skill in command of one of lI.M. ships in action." | Wrapt in this disguise, few recognised a New Zeaiander. Only one London daily, the Daily News, knew this, anil I cannot do better than quote in full what it says:— "Lieut.-Commander Sanders is the second oflicer of our naval force?, to receive the V.C. in this war without an.v detailed account of his action being given. The previous case, do which, the. Daily News was the first to call attention, was that of Commander Gordon Campbell, of the R.K., who was actually decorated by tlie King- before the award of the V.C. was gazetted. Commander Campbell received the D.S.O. some time heforo in similar circumstances, and also special promotion over the heads of about 700 seniors. "The advancement of Lieut.-Com-mander Sanders has been even more remarkable. He was commissioned in the R.N.R. as a sub-lieutenant on April 111 last year; and whereas the rule is that an officer shall nerve eight years as a lieutenant before getting further advancement, he has risen from sublieutenant to lieut.-eommaudcr in little over a year. "Lieutenant.-Commander Sanders is a native of Auckland. New Zealand, and is thirty years old. From the age of )!> onwards he was an officer in sailing ships, being in the service of the Union Steamship Co., of New Zealand. In January, 101(5, he came to this country and, through the agency of the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, who have secured nearly 4,000 officers for Ihe Navy, he obtained his commission. ''A former colleague of his at a Home naval base told a Daily News representative yesterday that he was one of the most capable and best-liked officers of his year. 'I know what he got the Cross for,' he said, 'and it's of such a peculiar nature that I can't divulge it. But ymi can lake it from me that it is one of the most brilliant minor engagements of the war.' He added that a friend of Lieut.Commander Sanders, who came to this country with him and j' ined the Army, had also been awarded the V.C." Commander Sanders is a son of Mr .. M. C. Sanders. He was an oflicer on ilie Huddart-I'arker boat the Willochra, which was acquired by the Union Steamship Co., at the outbreak of the war, and it was on resigning from the Willochra that he came to London, and through tie N.Z. Government Office here obtained his commission. From that point the rest is naval and secret history. If only the censor's eye were off me I could a tale unfold. If isn't a case of Absolute evidence have I none But my aunt's charwoman's sister's son Heard a policeman on his beat Telling a housemaid in Downing Street That he had a broi her who had a friend Who knew for a fact when l'ho war would end. ' but straight from one in the Ministerial ranks the sort- of stunt that Sanders, V.C., has been in and doing the Germans with to a turn . . . simply bursting I am of Navy news, and until tliis old war is over T remain in danger of spontaneous combustion.