SIR ROSSLYN WEMYSS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1919, Page 5

SIR ROSSLYN WEMYSS.

Vice-Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyas, First Sea Lord, who has been promoted to admiral, succeeded Lord Jellicos as First Sea Lord in 1917. Like Sir DoygJas Haig, he is a native of Fifeshire, having been born at Wemysa Cattle, Fife, in 18U4. He entered the Navy in 1877, and, following the usual course of promotion, reached the rank of captain in 11101. He became rear-admiral of the Second Battle Squadron in 1912, and wag promoted vice-admiral in 1918. He was in command of a squadron at the Qallipoli landing on April 25, 1916, and served as commander-in-chief of the East Indies and Egypt in 1916 and 1917. Sir Rosslyn commanded the Opliir when the King and Queen, then Duke and Duchess of York, made their tour of the Empire. A character sketch, written at the time of his appointment as First Sea Lord, described him in the following terms:—"lt is in his gift of organisation that those who knew the First Sea Lord when he was in the Aegean will find the key to the fresh appointment. They see in him the perfect transport officer. If there was bungling at the Dardanelles it was not. his fault; lie 'made good' from* A to Z. The biggest and hardest job of the kind i}i iustory was carried' through with the precision that Sir Eric Geddes would have applied before he went to the Admiralty to some railway, problem. There were always time-tables at Mudros, and later at Imbros, and the time-tables were observed. Ships—the right sort of ships—could bo depended upon to be at the right spot at the right moment. An First Sea Lord Sir Rosslyn W cmyss will havo an opportunity of ■ carrying on the Mudros tradition. There is no reason to think that, in the Nelson sense, he is a strategist. His experience of fighting has been of the smallest. At the Dardanelles lie saw service mainly from a land-locked base, with the help of a. Marconi operator. But he knows all about every kind of ship. He is an expert in oonvoys. He has had to tackle the submarine. At Whitehall he will be working with a man after his own heart. Sir Eric Geddes is a transport officer first and an admiral afterwards. So, in a more limited sense, is Sir Bosslyn. Transport is the vital thing at the moment,"