SPLENDID RECORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 81, 5 April 1940, Page 5

SPLENDID RECORD.

AIR VICE-MARSHAL. NEW ZEALANDER'S SUCCESS. OLD BOT OF KING'S COIXEGE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDDT, this day. Air Commodore K. R. Park, M.C., D.F.C., A.F.C., who has been promoted to acting-Air Vice-Marehal of the R.A.F., is the youngest son of Professor James Park, for many years Professor of Mines at Otago University. He is an Old Boy of King's College, Auckland, and the Otago Boys' High School, and is about 44 years of age.

After serving in B Battery, Dunedin, he went to Gallipoli with the main body of the N.Z.E.F., and served there as a gunner, winning a commission in the field. He was transferred to the famous British 29th Division and served with it in Egypt and France, being badly wounded at the first battle of the Somme in 1916. On recovering, from his wounds he was transferred to the Air Force, then known as the Royal Flying Corps. Within 10 months of joining he was in command of. the 4Sth Flying Squadron and underwent many thrilling adventures in the air. The machines of the squadron were Bristol fig-htem and the losses in those days were very 1 Young Park brought down a number of enemy machines, and on several occasions "craehed" himself in aerial combat. He was shot through the jaw and arm. Retaining hie commission in the Air Force after the war he graduated at a staff college in England and in 1934 he was Air Attache at the Buenos Ayres Embassy. Returning to England he was appointed Air A.D.C. to ±h» King. After £ course at- the in-

perial Defence College he was appointed to command the R.A.F. in Palestine and Trans-Jordan just before the outbreak of the war. However, when he was on the point of leaving England for the East that appointment was cancelled and he became senior staff officer in the fighter command defence of Great Britain.