TWO N.Z. AVIATORS KILLED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22308, 24 January 1938, Page 11

TWO N.Z. AVIATORS KILLED

COLLISION IN MID-AIR LONDON, January 21. Three men were killed in a collision between Royal Air Force and civil aeroplanes in Hertfordshire. The civil aeroplane was a training machine belonging to the Royal Air Force reserve school at Hatfield, in which an instructor, Mr T. Smith, a New Zealander, was taking up a pupil, Mr B. W. Grieves, another New Zealander, who arrived in England on January 17 and began flying lessons on the following day. Mr Smith had been at Hatfield for about a year.

The aeroplane was flying at a height of 2000 feet near the Royal Air Force machine, when the wing tips appeared to touch. Both machines crashed in a gravel works at St. Albans and caught fire. Workmen rushed to the rescue, but the heat was too intense for them to approach. The High Commissioner for New Zealand (Mr W. J. Jordan) has cabled messages of sympathy to the relatives of Messrs Smith and Grieves. He is making an official report on the crash to the New Zealand Government.

LEFT AUCKLAND LAST MONTH

CAREER OF MR B. W. GRIEVES U'fiESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, January 22. Mr Brian William Grieves, who met his death in the air tragedy in England, was a son of Mr Lawrence Grieves, of Carlton Gore road. Auckland. His age was 22, and he was educated at the Auckland Grammar School. He left Auckland on December 1 to take up a commission in the Royal Air Force. His brother, Mr Lex Grieves, is a well-known motoring writer. While at school Mr Brian Grieves took a keen interest in the cadet corps, holding the rank of battery sergeant-major. On leaving school he joined the Royal New Zealand Artillery, with which he spent three vcars and a half. Shortly before leaving New Zealand he was transferred to the Air Force.