AIR FORCE CASUALTY

WELLINGTON MAN

FLYING OFFICER C. H. CLARK

News has been received from the British Air Ministry of the death on October 10, "as the result of an air. accident," -of Flying Officer CharlesHampton Clark, of Wellington, who was on active service with the Royal Air Force. He had a comparatively short but distinguished flying career with the Royal Air Force, which he joined in England in 1936, and his term of three years' service, but for the war, would have expired this month, and he had expected to return to New Zealand in December with the second flight. of Wellington bombers. Flying Officer Clark was the young-

est son of Mr. John Clark, of 121 Overtoun Terrace, Hataitai, and the late Mrs. Clark. He was educated at St. Joseph's ConVent and Wellington Col-, lege, where he passed the matriculation examination. He was a member of the clerical staff of T. and W. Young, Ltd., until 1936, when he went to England, where he later joined the Royal Air Force. Rugby football was his principal sporting activity. He captained the Wellington College Old Boys' senior B team, and was for a time secretary of the club. He ■ also played for the Royal Air Force in a match against the other services. Shortly before war broke out Flying Officer Clark refused an attractive offer to enter civil aviation in England because he wished to spend Christmas in New Zealand with his family. In August last he led the first flight of a squadron of bombers to Irak. He was commissioned as Pilot Officer in September, 1937. He was a specialist in navigation and when his relatives last heard from him' he was stationed at Leuchars, Scotland, and had been on a reconnaissance flight over_,.the North Sea. Relatives who survive him include a brother, Mr. Reginald Clark, of New Plymouth, who ' saw active service during the Great War, and five sisters —Mesdames E. Ahem, ,W. Band, W. Burge, J. Downes, and .Miss Olive Clark, all of Wellington.