Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

Friday 31 July 1936

Personal Notes -

The Navy.Captain Irving M. Palmer D.S.C., R.N., an Armagh officer, has taken up the duty at the Admiralty, and will later relieve Captain R.W. Blacklock D.S.C., as Deputy Director of the Operations Division.

A son of the late Surgeon J.M. Palmer D.L., of the Infirmary, Armagh and a brother of Rear-Admiral A.R. Palmer, he gained the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in command of the gunboat Comet on the Tigris in 1915.

He landed at Amara 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.

Later in the war he commanded Gadfly,and the sloops Lilac and Heather, working from Queenstown.

Captain Palmer last served at the Admiralty in 1925-27 as a commander in the Manning Department.

On 30th June 1934, while in command of H.M.S. Curacao, he visited Dover to represent the Royal Navy on the occasion of the intallation of the late Marquis of Reading as Lord Warden of the Cinque Forts.

Latterly he has been in command of the target-ship Centurion

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