CONTINGENT FOR CORONATION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22003, 29 January 1937, Page 10

CONTINGENT FOR CORONATION

CHOICE. OF LEADERS

SELECTION UNDERSTOOD TO

HAVE BEEN MADE

Although no official announcement has yet been made, it is understood that Major N. W. McD. Weir, staff officer in charge of military training and staff duty at general headquarters, Wellington, has been chosen to lead the New Zealand contingent for the Coronation in London. The second in command will be Captain L. W. Andrew, V.C., adjutant of the Wellington Regiment. Two other members of the permanent staff will also be chosen one of whom will be a sergeantmajor. Both these appointments will, it is understood, be filled from the North Island. Major Weir, who was born in July, 1893, graduated as a staff cadet from the Royal Military College, Australia, after serving in the Wellington College Rifles and in the Wellington Guards. His first appointment on the permanent staff was as a lieutenant on the outbreak of the war in 1914. At the close of the war in 1918, he was promoted to captain, and in August, 1925, he was .appointed major. Before his present post in Wellington he was area officer in command of the Invercargill regimental area. Captain Andrew served in the war as a lance-corporal, being appointed to the permanent staff in October, 1919, as a probationary lieutenant. In March, 1924, he was promoted to captain, and is at present adjutant of the Wellington Regiment. He was born at Ashhurst, North Island, in 1897, and was educated at Wanganui District High School and Wanganui Collegiate School. He joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1915 and served in Egypt and France with the second battalion, Wellington Regiment. In 1926 he passed the examination for major.

"NO APPOINTMENTS

YET MADE"

COMMENT BY MINISTER FOR DEFENCE

(MESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON. January 28. The Hon. F. Jones, Minister for Defence, commenting on the Christchurch report about the leaders of the Coronation contingent, said that no appoint* ments had been made, as he had not yet received recommendations from the Permanent Staff. The selection of the leaders could not be made till he had received and considered these recommendations.