Captain ST. JOHN CRONYN, D.S.O.

It is five cruises since Captain Cronyn joined the Ship and for those who have served with him during that time it is almost impossible to imagine the Training Cruiser without him. He has given “Devonshire “ a character an identity which we not only proudly recognise ourselves but which is acclaimed also wherever we go. Doubtless, with such a personality, he has done the same in his previous ships, but none have been so important as this one where he has set before Cadets an ideal of mature leadership and has represented in his person, as well to the Crowned Heads of Scandinavia as to the peoples of the many places we visit, what they imagine a sea-captain to be. It is inevitable that he should go on to other things, but he will certainly leave behind great traditions that now spring to mind whenever “the Devonshire “ is on people’s lips.
He came to us with a distinguished record of seamanship and an experience of training which ranged from Term Officer at Dartmouth to Training Commander at R.N.B., Portsmouth. The elements of both backgrounds have been so well blended that, with a tongue that loves the ‘mot-juste’ as well as delighting in what he calls “the gutter wit,” he has been able to make clear to the Cadets the many factors in any situation. Coupled with that is a vast knowledge of Naval history and the tactics of warfare from which he draws many an illuminating parallel with great facility ; a knowledge of contemporary personalities and of events with which he keeps abreast through his favourite The Economist and other journals a memory that can be as disconcerting as it is phenomenal ; and a fund of stories that make many of his guests, who have laughed so much at the telling, seek him out again to hear the story itself afterwards. With all that goes a great belief in sport not least in its bearing on the development of character; and his knowledge and estimate of Cadets has often been supplemented by the many games which he has unfailingly watched, if not played in himself. It has been a man with the widest experience of human nature and with a great feeling for the imponderables of life who has been in charge of their immediate destinies.
To the Ship’s Company he has been a Captain who has taken them into his confidence as much by the friendly and informative talks he has given each cruise, as by the trust and responsibility for the success of things which he has put in the Chief, Petty Officers and Presidents of Messes. It has been known throughout the Ship that his interpretation of discipline was founded on justice, and the response to it has been shown in the noticeable decline in the number of offenders. No one could have taken more pains over individual cases of welfare or in trying to ensure that the general needs of Ships’ Company were being catered for ashore and afloat.
He has been very much father of the happy family which his Wardroom has become. The “cuddy” has always been open to our personal problems and many an Officer has availed himself of the shrewd and charitable advice that his experience gives. Most generous in his hospitality, too, he has passed on to all of us a few of the secrets of his warm-hearted entertaining. “ Jimmy,” said his first girl friend when he was standing about being rather dumb, “your first duty when you go to a party is to see that the party goes.” And that surely has been the example and the tone which he has given to the vast amount of the social life in which we have inevitably been involved. Even the most shy of his Officers has found little difficulty in entering into the spirit of things and turning what might have been rather formal occasions into most happy parties. And how many of us have coveted that crowning gift of his of being able to make the speech of the evening when called upon and if not the speech, the song?
The Ship has profited greatly from the presence of Mrs. Cronyn too in all parts of the world that we have visited. Entertaining soldiers in the desert when she gets to Fayid ought to be a simple matter by comparison with some of the arduous duties she has undertaken with us. And as the Captain knows the Middle East so well, being one of the first Naval members of the Royal Central Asian Society, the difficulties of settling down in a new place will be as good as halved. We very much hope that they will both have a most enjoyable commission there and we feel sure that they must know that they take with them our grateful thanks for all that they have meant in the life of the Ship our best wishes for their health and happiness and our hope that in due time we shall see his flag, well earned and rightly flying.