OVER FIVE YEARS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 93, 30 January 1947, Page 2

OVER FIVE YEARS

LONG AND VARIED EXPERIENCE FLIGHT LIEUTENANT RON BIGGAR, OF ASHBURTON

In Ashburton again after a lengthy and varied period of war service is Flight Lieutenant Ron W. Biggar, son of Mr and Mrs R. H. Biggar, of Cameron Street. Flight Lieutenant Biggar and his wife, whom he married during the war in Cairo, and who spent a number of years in Ashburton before the war, arrived in New Zealand together on Monday on the Rakaia.

After doing his initial training, Flight Lieutenant Biggar left New Zealand in June, 1941, passing through Canada in transit to the United Kingdom, where he arrived in the beginning of August of that year. Until November of the following year Flight Lieutenant Biggar remained in the British Isles. For over a year of the time he was a staff pilot at an air-gunnery school located near Inverness- in the misty north of Scotland. His operational training was done in Wales,

At the end of 1942 Flight Lieutenant Biggar went out to No.rtli-west Africa, and from Tunisia and Algeria he flew Spitfires . The ferryhig of all types of fighter planes—Spitfires, Hurricanes, Kittyliawks—was the Ashburton pilot’s job when stationed first at Gibraltar and then in French Morocco.

Injuries suffered in a forced landing put an end to Flight Lieutenant Biggar’s flying career, and after a period in hospital from August to November, 1943, he took over an administration post in Cairo. After a little over six months he returned to the United Kingdom, where, for a short period, he was engaged in the repatriation of New Zealand Air Force personnel. Following a period on liaison work in the personnel branch of the Air Ministry, Flight Lieutenant Biggar went to the Middle East again to take over the New Zealand liaison office, headquarters, R.A.F. Middle East. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo he married, his wife, who was with the New Zealand forces being stationed at Maadi camp. In December, 1945, they returned to England, and until October of last year Flight Lieutenant Biggar was once again at the Air Ministry. A period of leave and waiting for shipping to New Zealand preceded their return to the Dominion,