George Mulock
After compiling the reports, logs and maps of the expedition, Mulock returned to full-time service, seeing action on the beaches of Gallipoli and later as the most senior naval officer to be captured at Singapore in 1942.
Austin was approached to assume the post of Poet Laureate, vacant since the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson; he accepted and ensured that his nephew's naval career would begin in earnest.
[7] During his time on HMS Triton, newspapers were awash with news that a joint expedition by the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) under the command of Commander Robert F. Scott, RN would travel to the Southern Continent and attempt to reach the Pole as well as conduct scientific research to ascertain the exact position of the south magnetic pole, allowing the Admiralty to produce conclusive magnetic charts of the region.
Mulock's uncle and stepfather Alfred Austin, now Poet Laureate, wrote to Sir Clements Markham at the Royal Geographical Society remarking that his nephew had recently completed a course in HMS Triton and was now highly proficient in underwater survey, cartography, geometry and oceanography.
Markham, having returned from Norway where he had purchased for £3,380 the ex-whaler Morgenen, now renamed Morning, was eager to despatch a relief ship to support Scott's expedition, which had sailed in August 1901.
[8] Under the command of Captain William Colbeck, a veteran of the "Southern Cross" expedition and a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve, Morning would rendezvous with Discovery in Antarctica, replenish her supplies, and return with despatches.
On 13 September, under the command of Lt. Michael Barne, Mulock, Quartley, Smythe, Crean and Joyce spent a week on the ice travelling to the South West depot to leave supplies.
As the crew assembled for the dedication of a cross to AB George Vince on 16 February 1904, cracking sounds were clearly heard echoing across the ice.
On Saturday 10 September 1904 Discovery docked at Portsmouth to much acclaim, and while the crew was feted by receptions and banquets celebrating the success of the British National Antarctic Expedition (BNAE), Mulock was informed that the Admiralty had seconded him to the Royal Geographical Society to compile, record logs, evaluate surveys and produce charts of Antarctica for use in the future.
This was to cause some disruption to Mulock's work with the RGS, but necessary before the newly promoted Scott dined with King Edward VII at Balmoral Castle.
The newly promoted Captain Scott CVO also informed Mulock that in recognition of his dedicated service and the interruption caused to his naval career, he had recommended him for the torpedo course at HMS Vernon, a highly prized qualification in the pre-1914 navy.
At Buckingham Palace on 18 December 1906 Lieutenant George Mulock R.N., F.R.G.S was presented to King Edward VII and invested with the Silver Polar Medal.
A member of the trio of Handy-class destroyers, Hunter had been launched over a decade before in December 1895, but her Fairfield-built engines still provided 4,000 horsepower (3,000 kW) and gave her a top speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph).
In March 1915, whilst serving on the staff of Admiral John de Robeck, Mulock was stationed in the Dardanelles and witnessed first-hand the plight of the Canopus-class battleship HMS Ocean, which sank after hitting a mine.
Staveley, RN and, as the London Gazette recorded, was "largely responsible for the evacuation of the great quantity of war materials and animals and for the distribution of forces from landing craft at Cape Helles and Suvla Bay".
[11] With the prospect of a position with the Asiatic Petroleum division of Royal Dutch Shell as its Marine Superintendent in Shanghai, and an opportunity to continue to assist Naval Intelligence, Mulock agreed to ask to be placed on the retirement list.
Settled into the rather mundane life in a Chinese Treaty Port, Mulock was soon aware of the increased military traffic generated by forces of the Empire of Japan.
When the Japanese attacked the Shanghai for a second time in 1937, doctors aboard a Royal Navy ship informed Mulock that he must return home because of a duodenal ulcer, adding that he would also benefit from a few days of medical observation.
The decision had very little to do with his medical condition, it was a ruse to provide Mulock with an excuse to leave China and return to the UK carrying important information for the Foreign Office and the Admiralty, and papers from the British representatives.
He left the UK in late August 1939 aboard the British-India Steam Navigation Company liner HMT Dunera, chartered as a troopship to transport personnel to the Far East.
In addition, XDO was to maintain the minefields, co-ordinate visual reports between the various Post War Signal Stations (PWSS), dotted around the Singapore coastline.
At the time of the outbreak of war in the Far East the XDO Division was still not fully manned and it was not until the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales that the staff was augmented by survivors from the doomed ship.
Rear-Admiral E J Spooner DSO, RN quickly re-focused his attentions to the evacuation of key personnel from the colony and the destruction of all facilities which could conceivably be utilised by the Japanese.
Captain Mulock and his staff at Extended Defences, under the indirect command of Rear-Admiral Spooner, co-ordinated the systematic evacuation of some sixteen vessels which sailed from Singapore at dawn on 12 February, or 'Black Friday' as it would later be known.
Rear-Admiral Spooner had decided on 12 February that, before his own evacuation the following day, any seaworthy ship left in Keppel Harbour should sail for Java that night.
The Captain was ordered to requisition the motor launches Osprey and Mary Rose, and convey key Australian diplomatic, Malayan Civil Service and Special Branch personnel to safety.
On the evening of 16 February 1942 Mary Rose, en route for Bangka, was illuminated by searchlights from two Japanese patrol vessels in the Muntok Strait beyond the Moesi River, who threatened to open fire on the launch.
The prisoners were held in a cinema-hall at Muntok where Commissioner V G Bowden told his captors in their own language of his diplomatic status and remonstrated with guards who attempted to remove his personal possessions.
As a POW, Captain Mulock was held at Karenko and Shirakawa where he shared a cell with Sir Mark Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, before being relocated briefly to Japan aboard the infamous hell-ship, the Oryoku Maru.
[1][2] In March 2012, at the premiere of the screenplay of Reynold's Cargo, a wartime drama, based on the civilian evacuations from Singapore, the character of a naval captain called Mulock was portrayed by Glenn Hazeldine.
