Roll of Honour

Roll of Honour

Center, William Rudolph

Rank: Fleet-Surgeon

Regiment: H.M.S. Russell, Royal Navy

Biography: Son of Lieut.-Colonel William Center, I.M.S. (M.B. (Aberd.), 1865); born 28 January 1871 ; educated Aberdeen Grammar School ; student in Medicine, 1889-90; M.B., C.M. (Edin.), 1893; M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. (Lond.), 1896 ; studied also at Strassburg and Berlin. In 1896 Center joined the Royal Navy and held many appointments at home and abroad, serving at the Cape, in the Mediterranean ; and in Australian waters. In 1911 he qualified as a German interpreter and in 1912 was promoted Fleet-Surgeon. In the following year he was commissioned to H.M.S. "Russell", the flagship of Rear-Admiral Freemantle, in which he served during the war in the North Sea 1914-15, and in the Mediterranean from November 1915 till his death. On 27 April 1916, the "Russell" struck a mine and sank Center was among those who were rescued, but he was so severely injured that he died in the Naval Hospital at Malta the following day, 28 April 1916.

Date of Death: 28 April 1916

Burial Details: Buried at Malta Navel Cemetery, Protestant Officers' Plot, Grave 43.

Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.


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