Served on Princess Royal from 5 June 1914 to 8 August 1918.

Transferred to New Zealand after a checkered career in the Royal Navy in Britain. His service record lists several incidents that lead to detention in cells. He forfeited his claim to a Royal Navy pension.

Amongst other information cited in his records are the fact that he was paid a war gratuity at HMS Espiefle.

He died in Wellington on the Evan's Bay slip whilst the HMS Philomel was docked for repairs. HMS Philomel is registered in Auckland at the Devonport Naval Base which we surmise is the reason he is remembered on the Auckland War Memorial Hall of Memories.

He came to New Zealand from Britain on the Chatham. The Chatham called at Wellington to tow the disabled Philomel to Auckland. Instead, repairs were undertaken by a skeleton crew from the Chatham with the intention of sailing Philomel north. Philomel was on the slip in Evan's Bay for the repairs when Stocker Cronin was found dead and floating in the water. (Morey, K.A. (2008) p. 65, and Paper's Past, 19 March 1921, p. 5.) AWMM