A GREAT ADMIRAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1919, Page 7

A GREAT ADMIRAL.

THE LATE LORD BERBSFORD, AN EVENTFUL CAREER. The late Lore} Charlea William de la Poer Beresford, who might be termed one of the older school of notable British Admirals, was horn at Philiptown, CouiXv Dublin, in 1846, being the second son of the Rev. John Beresford, fourth Marquis of Waterford. He entered the Royal Navy in 1859, was appointed a lieutenant in 1888, advanced, to the rank of commander in 1875, and served in various vessel. In 1872 he was appointed Flag Lieutenant to the Commander-in-Chief at Devonport, and he accompanied the Prince of Wales us naval aide-de-camp to India in 1875-76. In 1877 he joined the Thunderer, and was commander of the Royal yacht Osborne from 1878 to 1881. His Lordship received the gold medal of the Royal Humane Society for having on three occasions jumped overboard and saved life at sea. On one of 'these occasions, when he rescued a marine who had fallen overboard at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, he was attired in heavy shooting clothes, and his pockets were filled with cartridges. A GALLANT EXPLOIT. At the time' of the bombardment of the forts of Alexandria, Lord Charles Boresfori was in command of the gunboat Condor, and in the action of July 11, 1882, he greatly distinguished himself by his gallant conduct. The ironclad Temeraire, which, got ashore at the beginning of the engagement, was safely assisted off by the Condor. Then the formidable Marabout batteries, which constituted the second strongest defence of the port of Alexandria, were effectually silenced. The latter success was chieftv due to the gallant way in which the Con/lor bore dawn on the fort and engaged guns immensely superior to her own; So vigorous, indeed, was the attack ov» the big fort, that the admiral', ship ijgnaJled "Wei! ilone. Condor." It was ascertained thai tiie Khedive, who had taken refuge with Dervish ?asha at Ramleh, <ym in imminent danger. Aiabi Pallia h»d ?ent out a body of troops to guard the palace, and ordered them to I kill the Khedive, but Jewfik and Dervish managed to 'bribe the men and to communicate with Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who despatched the Condor inshore to keep the Egyptian troops in check. The Khedive then succeeded in getting away, and drove to.Ras-el-tin. : AT ALEXANDRIA. As the conflagration and looting continued , in the city of Alexandria tho Americans were asked to land marines to j aasißt iu keeping order, and a regular police system was organised under Lord Charles Beresford, while Captain Fisher, of the Inflexible, took, command of the land forces. Strong measures, were necessary to subdue the looters. Several of the scoundrels, detected in the very act of setting fire to houses, were sum- i marily shot in the great square; and those caught plundering were . flogged. Lord Charlea Beresford was promoted to thn rank of captain on August 7, 1882, for; the services he had rendered at the bombardment- of- Alexandria. In September, 1884, he was appointed on the staff of Lord Welseley for the Nile Expedition, and assisted in the arduous work of getting the boats up to Kovti. i In command of tho Naval Division, with Sir Herbert Stewart, across the desert, he wag the only man not killed of those in immediate charge of the machine-gun at Abu Klea, and was subsequently left in charge of Zeraba when the troops marched on Gubat. In February, 188§, with the small river steamer Sofia, 'he rescued Sir Charles Wilson's party (who had, been wrecked on their return from Khartoum), .after having had the boiler of the-steamer repaired while anchored-' for twenty-four hours under fire of tae enemy's fort, which fire was kept Sown solely by the two machine-guns on board. AS A PUBLIC MAN. His Lordship sat in the House of Commons as member for County Waterford, in the Conservative interest, from February, 1874, till April.' 1880, when his candidature was unsuccessful. On many occasions hj« called attention to the state of affairs in connection with the Navy, and several naval reforms were effected through his instrumentality. In Novein- \ ber, 1885, he was returned for the Eastern j Division of Msrylebone by a majority of 994 over the sitting member, and easily retained the seat at the election of 1886. He was appointed Junior Lord of th« Admiralty* on- the accession of Lord Salisbury to power, which post he resigned in 1838 on a question affecting the strength of the-Navy. Be subsequently brought before the House of Commons detailed proposals for strengthening the Fleet by seventy ships at a cost of twenty millions. The Naval Defence Bill may be said to have resulted from these proposals. In December, 1889, he wfas appointed to the command of the flrstrclass armored cruiser Undaunted, for service in the 'Mediterranean, haviirg previously retired from Parliament. CHAMPION OF NAVAL DEFENCE. In 1893, at a great city meeting on the naval crisis caused by the refusal of .the Liberal Governpjfent to introduce an adequate prograKme, he pressed for more ships. When the Russian special programme was. announced in 1898 he once more made a demand for a supplementary 'programme, and secured an additional eight armored ships, making the total for the year fifteen. These were the very ships which kept the' world's peace in the trying days of 1904, when the North Sea incident all but caused war.

In January, 1903, Lord Charles began the long period of service afloat in high eemmaiidj which gave him such unvivaUtd, experience. Though he was never permitted by the authorities to train a large fleet, such as he rnuat have handled in war, though his ahips were, often reduced to eight, ton, or twelve armored units, he made the Channel Fleet a great school pf tactics, a training ground for admirals. Every captain was required to handle the whole fleet from time to time, and to execute some tactical exercise. Junior officers were required to take charge of battleships.) War conditions were studied with zeal, pertinacity, and splendid intelligence. In war it may well be that captains will j fall at the post of duty, and the charge | of great ships pass to young lieutenants. That they might be prepared for that contingency was the aim of Lord Charles' training. In 1309 lie resigned his command of the Channel Fleet because of disagreement with his superiors, and at the general election in January,' 1910, was elected Conservative member, of Parliament > for Portsmouth, and remained in Parli*« ment till 1910. ' ' . '