N.Z. COMMANDER OF GUNBOAT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23744, 16 September 1942, Page 4

N.Z. COMMANDER OF GUNBOAT

YOUNG OFFICER FROM CHRISTCHURCH Commander of a gunboat at the age of 22, Sub-Lieutenant K. H. Mackenzie, of Christchurch, who has recently been in action against German minelayers in the English Channel, is a son of Mr J. Mackenzie, station manager of 3YA. He has been serving in the Royal Navy for two years, and has been in command of his gunboat for more than four months. Sub-Lieutenant Mackenzie, who was educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, was formerly employed as an architectural draughtsman with the Government. He left New Zealand in the first batch of men

selected to train for commissions under Scheme B, and after shore training in H.M.S. Ganges, served at sea in H.M.S. Sherwood, one of the 50 American destroyers transferred to Britain. Later he was transferred to another destroyer, H.M.S. Malcolm, which was based on Iceland. After further training in H.M.S. King Alfred, Sub-Lieutenant Mackenzie was commissioned and posted at the beginning of this year to a gunboat in the North Sea. Later he went through a short course at Portsmouth and in Scotland, and received his present command.