"Chief Motor Mechanic John H. Batey (Stratford) lost his life on active service during the last fortnight. He was in one of the small motor-boats known as "scooters," operating from Dunkirk base. The vessel was reported missing, and a few days later Mr. Batey's body was washed up on the French coast. He was buried with one or two comrades with full naval honours in the cemetery at Dunkirk. Mr. Batey was a motor mechanic in New Plymouth before coming to England in 1916. He was employed for a long time from Lowestoft, where he saw a great deal of service in the North Sea. In September last year his ship was sunk, and with a few other survivors he was picked up by a trawler at midnight, after being in the water for an hour and a-half." [Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 143, 17 June 1918, Page 2]

"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 (says the Dominion). 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 in New Plymouth and Hawera, 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." [Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 21 June 1918, Page 4]