Kyosuke Eto, born on 7th April 1881 in the small village of Gonohe, Aomori Prefecture, at the northernmost tip of Japan's mainland. He enrolled in the Japanese Naval Academy in 1898, aged 17 and enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy aged 19 in February 1900.
He served aboard HIJMS Yugiri and HIJMS Azuma of the 2nd Fleet as a Sub-Lieutenant and was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1905, aged 24. Attending gunnery school in 1908 he was promoted to Chief Gunner on HIJMS in September 1908 and rose again in rank to Lieutenant Commander, aged 29, in December 1910.
He was promoted to Commander in December 1915 and transferred to the United Kingdom in May 1916, assigned as a military attaché. After his arrival, as per the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, he was assigned a position as a military observer aboard HMS Vanguard in August of the same year, dying the following year aboard the dreadnought aged 36.
There is more detail on his life and career at http://www.gwpda.org/naval/cmdreto.htm
Commander Eto’s signature -Â
#48 - 275/843
Sources:
GWPDA, history and portrait
Signature courtesy of Ian Thorogood.