AN APPOINTMENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 308, 5 October 1940, Page 3

AN APPOINTMENT

THE NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL. SIR CYRIL NEW ALL CHOSEN. HAS HAD BRILLIANT CAREER. (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, October 4. It is officially announced that the King has approved the appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, G.C.8., C.M.G., C.8.E., A.M., to be Governor-General of New Zealand in succession to Colonel the Rt. Viscount Galway, P.C., G.C.M.G., D. 5.0., 0.8. E., whose term of office will expire in February, 1941. His. Majesty has also approved the promotion of Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall to be Marshal of the Royal Air Force. New Zealand’s Governors - General since the Great War have included a famous Admiral, distinguished soldiers, and a noted farmer. Sir Cyril Newall is the first airman to represent his Majesty in the Dominion. Indianborn, and with an American wife, he has had a distinguished career both m the Army before the Great War and in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force since 1914. Since 1937 he has been the highest executive officer of the Roval Air Force.

Decorated for Gallantry. Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Louis Norton Newall, son of the late Lieut.Colonel William Potter Newall, of the Indian Army, was born at Mussoorie, India, on February 15, 1886. He was educated at Bedford School and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and entered the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1905. Four years later he was transferred to the 2nd King Edward’s Own Ghufkas, Indian Army, and took part in the Zalcka Khel expedition on the frontier. He gained the Indian Medal, with clasp, in this campaign.

Recalled on the outbreak of the European War, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and served with distinction throughout the war. While holding an Air Force command in France in 1916, with the rank of major, he was awarded the Albert Medal, (first class) for conspicuous gallantry, and later he received the C.M.G. and C.B.E. Mentioned in dispatches three times, he was also made an officer of the Legion of Honour, the Order of Leopold of Belgium, and the Order of the Crown of Italy. He was also awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre.

After the war Sir Cyril Newall served as Chief Staff Officer of the South-east Area, and also held the post of Deputy-Director of Personnel in the Air Ministry. In 1922 and 1923 he was Air Officer commanding the Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force, and Air Aide-de-Camp to his Majesty King George V. Middle East Experience. Promoted to the rank of Air Commodore in 1925, he was engaged for a time on special duty with the League of Nations Disarmament Committee. He held the position of Director of Operations and Intelligence and DeputyChief of th.e Air Staff from 1926 to 1931. He was a member of the Air Council in 1930 and 1931, and commanded the Wessex Bombing Area in the latter year. From 1931 to 1934 he commanded the Royal Air Force in the Middle East, with headquarters at Cairo.

When the Government decided, in 1935, on a programme of expansion for the Royal Air Force he Avas placed in charge of the Directorates of Organisation, Equipment and Works and Buildings, and honoured Avitli a knighthood (K.C.8.) His appointment in 1937 as Chief of the Air Staff, with the rank of Air Chief Marshal, made him the highest executive officer in the Royal Air Force. In the folloAving year the honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (G.C.8.) Avas conferred upon him.

Sir Cyril NeAvall married in 1922 May Duicie Wendell, Avho died in 1924. In 1925 he married Olive Tennyson Foster, only daughter of Mrs Francis Storer Eaton, of Boston, United States. He has one son and two daughters. His home is at Walton Leigh, Addlestone, Surrey.