Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

Wednesday 17 January 1934
Portsmouth

Another D.S.C. Captain is appointed in the same batch, and on the same date as the officer mentioned in the above paragraph (Captain Arthur Malcolm Peters D.S.C.). This is Captain Irving Montgomery Palmer, who will follow Captain R.L.Burnett in command of the cruiser Curacao. There is a touch of grim humour about the circumstances in which Captain Palmer got his decoration. As a lieutenant in command of the gunboat Comet he landed at Amara, and with two men proceeded to the barracks. A whole Turkish battalion came streaming out, and insisted upon surrendering. Such a capitulation was very embarrassing, for had he taken them all on board they probably would have sunk his little ship from sheer deadweight.

Belfast Newsletter

Monday 2 July 1934

An Armagh Officer

Captain Irving M Palmer D.S.C., H.M.S. Curacoa, was present on Saturday at the installation of the Marquis of Reading as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.Curacao was chosen to respresent the Royal Navy on this interesting occasion. She was the flagship of Sir Reginal Tyrwhitt at Harwich during the latter part of the Great War, with Sir Barry Domville in command.

Captain Palmer is a son of the late Surgeon J. Mansergh Palmer of the Infirmary, Armagh,and is a brother of Rear-Admiral Alexander R.Palmer.He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of his services in Mesopotamia in 1915. In command of Comet, he served in the advance on Amara, where he was landed with a very small force to preserve order, and at the barracks, though accompanied by only two men, he received the surrender of a battalion of Turkish officers and men.

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