ARMY CHANGES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 304, 23 December 1944, Page 6

ARMY CHANGES

AUCKLAND COMMAND

BRIG. A. B. WILLIAMS' POST

WELLINGTON, this day.

Consequent on the appointment of Brigadier L. Potter, D.5.0., N.Z. Staff Corps, to the command of Central Military District with headquarters in Wellington, Brigadier A. B. Williams, D.5.0., Royal New Zealand Artillery, at present in charge of that district, is to become officer commanding the Northern Military District, Auckland, in succession to Major-General P. H. Bell, C.8., D.5.0., N.Z. Staff Corps, who is due to retire in January.

Major-General Bell was born in Wanganui in ISB6. An old boy of Wanganui College, he became a prominent oarsman and a representative Rugby footballer. In December, 1914, he was posted to the Wellington Regiment as a lieutenant and was subsequently promoted to captain in command of the Auckr land Company of the 4th Reinforcements. For a time he was on the staff of Major-General Harry Fulton, and between 191.5 and 1919 held several posts in the N.Z. Rifle Brigade. He was awarded the D.5.0., Croix de Guerre (French) and was mentioned in dispatches three times. On returning to New Zealand in 1919 he was appointed to the N.Z. Staff Corps as a major. He was assistant adjutant and quarter-master-general and later served as staff officer in charge of regimental districts at Dunedin,. Hamilton and Auckland. During 1928-29 he was officer commanding the Samoan Military Police.

Southern Appointment

In 1937 General Bell was appointed officer commanding the Southern Military District with the rank of colonel, and in 1939 became quarter-master-general at Army headquarters and third military member of the Army Board. The following year he was promoted to brigadier and appointed to command the Northern Military District. In 1942, on the expansion of the New Zealand forces and the creation of divisions, he was appointed to major-general. General Bell was awarded the C.B. in the 1944 New , Year Honours. The general was ..appointed an additional A.D.C. to the' King in February, 1942. Brigadier Williams, who was born in 1892, served in No. 1 Field Ambulance and in the New Zealand Field Artillery prior to the last war. From 1914 to 1919 he servpd as an officer with the New Zealand Field Artillery in the Expeditionary Force, and rose to the rank of major. He was awarded the D.S.O. and was mentioned in dispatches. In 1919 he was appointed to the permanent forces as a captain in the Royal New Zealand Artillery, and in following years held a number of appointments in Central and Southern Military Districts. He became officer commanding the R.N.Z.A. in the Southern Command in 1926, and was promoted to major. Command in Australia In 1937 he was seconded for service with the Australian military forces, and remained with that force until some three months after this war broke out. He was appointed fortress commander, Newcastle, N.S.W., cn the outbreak of war, having previously held artillery and staff appointments in the Eastern Command. During his service with the Australian military forces he visited Darwin and Singapore. In May, 1941, he visited the United States and Canada with the late R£. Hon. J. G. Coates, and was subsequently appointed as the New Zealand Army representative attached to the Combined British and United States Staff in Washington, with the rank of brigadier. Returning to the Dominion in September, 1943, Brigadier Williams was appointed officer commanding the Central Military District, with headquarters in Wellington. An Aucklander, Brigadier Potter graduated from the Royal Military College of Australia and served in the last war. He has held many appointments in the Dominion, and early in the present war was General Staff Officer (First Grade) at the Northern Military District. Later he commanded an infantry brigade in the Third Division in the Pacific and was awarded the D.S.O.