MODEST HERO

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 285, 2 December 1941, Page 5

MODEST HERO

MISSING AIRMAN SERGEANT-PILOT WARD, V.C. (0.c.) WANGANUI, this day. Reference to the visit to London by Sergeant-Pilot J. A. Ward, V.C., just prior to the raid on Hamburg from which he was reported missing, is contained in two personal letters received by Sergeant-Pilot Ward's parents in Wanganui from Mr. and Mrs. Ormond Wilson, London. Mr. Wilson was formerly M.P. for Rangitikei,. and he married in England. Both he and his wife are on the staff of the British Broad-

casting Corporation. Mr. Wilson met Sergeant-Pilot Ward when lie came to broadcast. "I would like to say how much impressed I was at his modesty," Mr. Wilson has written. "He had a very busy week when he was in London to have his portrait painted, and to attend a large number of gatherings. I think he quite enjoyed it all, but he just remained himself all the time. "The 8.8.C. wish to send you a (recording of the broadcast he gave to New Zealand, and this is being forwarded separately." Mr. Wilson enclosed a reproduction from the London Times of the portrait of Sergeant-Pilot Ward painted by Mr. Oswald Birley. "He bore his honour so unselfconsciously," wrote Mrs. Ormond Wilson. "When he came to lunch with us in the 8.8.C. canteen, which was crowded, he did not seem to notice how everyone murmured."