20 DECEMBER 1946, Page 5

Sir Herbert Richmond will be greatly missed at Cambridge—as well

as in many other places. It is unusual for a college to choose an Admiral as Master, though Peterhouse some years ago chose a soldier in Lord Birdwood. But Downing made no mistake when Richmond, having filled for two years the Chair of Naval and Imperial History at Cambridge, showed how much he was scholar as well as sailor. In his eleven years' Mastership of Downing he has worn cap and gown as naturally as cocked hat and gold braid—though it should never be forgotten that he was once commander of the famous Dreadnought.' I was talking to him in Cambridge only just over a fortnight ago, and we pursued the conversation by correspondence since. He was particularly gratified at the appreciation of his last book, Statesmen and Sea-Power, in The Spectator a few weeks ago. His only son is President of the Cambridge Union, and though still an undergraduate, a member of the Cambridge Borough Council.