Promoted Chief Motor Mechanic 1 July 1917

He won the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal on ML282, and it was in the same operation that Lieutenant Percy Thompson Dean RNVR Commander of M.L.282 won the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to Lieutenant James Courtenay Keith Wright RNVR Second in command M.L.282. The operation was described by Maxwell [1920].

Excerpt from the Grey River Angus 25th June 1918. Amongst the New Zealanders who participated in the recent naval action at Zeebrugge was Mr. Sydney Fox, son of Mr. Louis H. Fox, house steward at the Wellington Hospital. Writing to his parents, Mr. Fox, who left New Zealand as a member of the first Motor Boat Patrol, gives some particulars of the fight. “We went up into the canal,” he writes, “to rescue the crews of two ships that we sank there. Well, there were only four of us on our ship who came out alive, and I was one of them. It was a very desperate job. The writer refers to one of his pals, Mr. Jack Batey, who was killed in the engagement. Mr. Batey, who formerly lived at New Plymouth, leaves a widow. At latest advice Mr. Fox was chief engineer of the vessel on which he was at the time of the Zeebrugge engagement.

Service on ML 282 is derived from his gallantry award citation.

Palmer recruit, went to UK on HMNZT WILLOCHRA, after training at HERMIONE posted to ML 282 . Served at Zeebrugge 22-23 1918 with MLs - awarded the Croix de Guerre also awarded the CGM for his work in the Motor Boats served with Batey and Attwood - reported as serving in ML 252 in September 1918, in 1919 posted to MLs in the Mediterranean from depot ship HMS Caesar, posted to British Caspian Flotilla to man CMBs 1919, then to HMS Julius at Constantinople. Back to Britain in March 1920 & discharged from RN 20 June 1920 - one of the last NZers to be demobilised from the First World War AWMM