THE REVIEW - PAST TOPICS - 2008

• Spring 2008 (Vol 20.4)
  'Conduct very plucky in one so young...'
  Midshipman Duncan Boyes, of HMS Euryalus, carried the colours with the naval brigade on 6 September 1864 during the Anglo-Japanese War. He kept ahead in the face of fierce fire, his colour sergeants having fallen and with the colours riddled with bullet holes. He earned the VC but six years later his career came to a controversial end and he committed suicide. A coloured postcard depicting his gallant action forms the cover of this edition of The Review.
  
  The Remarkable Robert Halpin
  Jim Rees, who has written a history of the man who commanded the Great Eastern, summarises Capt Halpin's story and describes how this unusual man laid 26,000 miles of cable linking four continents. A further article by an NHCRA collector describes the Halpin Memorial Medal, presented annually until the 1960s by the Royal Merchant Seamen's Orphanage to its best boy and girl swimmers. The handsome cased example used to illustrate the article was awarded in 1905 to Edward Slater.
  
  Britain's Last Iron Gunboat
  Campaigner Rob Buckle of the Save the Handy group recalls the career of an experimental Victorian warship and what is described as her recent wilful destruction by developers. HMS Handy survived almost in one piece at Tipner, Portsmouth, until 2006.
  
  With the Royal Canadian Navy in the Korean War
  Collector and historian Peter Singlehurst describes the RCN's little-known contribution to the UN's effort, providing lists of awards and Canadian casualties.
  
  Other articles in this issue range across a variety of topics such as the German Navy's visit to Whale Island in 1907 and the story of HMS Cardiff.
   

• Summer 2008 (Vol 21.1)
  This edition marked the 90th anniversary of the 1919 Armistice:
  
  The final signal - A moment in history for young Stan
  This illustrated article by Richard Oldroyd tells the story of RNVR rating Stan Roffey who sent a memorable message to British warships in the North Sea marking the Armistice. At the time he was a signaller at the RN wireless station at the end of the Admiralty Pier at Grimsby.
  
  Remember the Amphion!
  Robert Hughes recounts the circumstances leading to the loss of the cruiser HMS Amphion in a minefield when 149 men, almost half the crew, perished on 6 August 1914, only two days after war had been declared.
  
  Postcard Personalities
  The latest in this series depicts Commodore the Rt Hon Henry Douglas King RNVR, who had a distinguished career as a reserve officer and politician. He died in 1930 when his chartered yacht ran on to rocks near Fowey during one of the worst summer storms in memory.
  
  Other articles in this issue include the story of fleet repair ship HMS Cyclops, the award of the DSM to Deckhand Richard Barber RNR in 1917, a biography of Engineer Captain Charles Gerald Taylor (1863-1915), an article on First World War RNAS photographer Louis Herbert and details of Birmingham Fire Brigade's Naval reservists.
   

• Autumn 2008 (Vol 21.2)
  HMS Calypso - Mussolini's propaganda coup
  Fascist Italy's war against Britain was only two days old when one of its submarines ended the career of the cruiser Calypso, the first Royal Navy ship to be sunk by the Regia Marina in the Second World War. This article about her loss includes a full casualty list.
  
  HM Monitor M33 - A lucky survivor
  Hampshire County council project co-ordinator Josephine Lawler looks back at the career of Monitor M33, her wartime exploits and subsequent fate. This rare craft, one of only two surviving Great War ships, is undergoing restoration at Portsmouth.
  
  We slept in a convent - the exploits of HMS Sparrow
  A former crew member of the frigate HMS Sparrow, Graham Jewell, recalls how the post-war Royal Navy spent much of its time showing the flag. He describes the trials, tribulations and pleasures of such cruises during the austerity of the late 1940s.
  
  Other articles include the loss of HMY Iolaire in 1919, the heroic crew of the Polish submarine Orzel, the story of a memorable party thrown by the Americans for visiting RN ratings in 1905, and a biography of Captain Charles Lepper RN (1892-1952.
   

• Winter 2008 (Vol 21.3)
  The Corfu Channel Incident
  Author Roger Perkins describes the dramatic incident in the Adriatic in 1946 when the destroyer HMS Saumarez blew up, the forward starboard section disappearing in a column of smoke and yellow flame. She had, in fact, struck a mine and men died - a major diplomatic incident in which the Albanian government was blamed.
  
  A Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) Gunner
  Royal Marine Major Mike Mead MM tells the story of his father, Harry John Mead BEM, who joined the Marines in October 1914. After active service in the Great War - he was at the Battle of Jutland - he eventually went to pension in 1936, although that wasn't to be the end of his career afloat. He was recalled in 1939 and sent to serve as a merchant ship gunner, fighting off German air attacks on Allied convoys. This is Harry Mead's story - and that of the courage of the DEMS gunners.
  
  Captain Richard Dawkins and the Loss of the Vanguard
  Barry Langridge, a member of the Orders & Medals Research Society, was a volunteer at the National Maritime Museum when he became interested in the story of Capt Richard Dawkins, whose Second China War Medal was held by the museum. Captain Dawkins was in command of the central battery ironclad HMS Vanguard when she was sunk in 1875 in a collision with HMS Iron Duke. But who was to blame and was Dawkins treated fairly?
  
  Other articles in this issue range from 'HMS Marlborough and the Last Days of Imperial Russia' to 'HMS Wimbrel - Last Survivor of Tokyo Bay 1945', from 'Life in the Georgian Navy' to 'The Chequered Career of the Gunboat Lepanto'.