WELLINGTON COUPLE REUNITED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23949, 17 May 1943, Page 3

WELLINGTON COUPLE REUNITED

(Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.) ALEXANDRIA, May 13. Waiting for a repatriated New Zealand soldier, Private Alfred Hope Mason, when he walked down the hospital-ship gangway this morning was. his fiancee, Private Ria Evelyn Claridge, a New Zealand W.A.A.C. whom he last saw in Wellington as he sailed for the Middle East nearly two years ago. Miss Claridge arrived in Egypt only a few weeks after Private Mason had been captured with a New Zealand dressing station during the Sidi Rezegh battle in the second Libyan campaign. Now a nurse in a New Zealand base hospital near Cairo, she was on leave in Alexandria when two hospital ships carrying more than 100 repatriated New Zealanders arrived from Turkey this morning. Shy and embarrassed by the curiosity of the interested people about her on the docks, Miss Claridge soon forgot her self-consciousness when Private Mason stepped down the gangway. To cheers and applause from the docks and decks they greeted each other fondly. Private Mason knew his fiancee was in Egypt but he was surprised to find her on the wharf waiting for him. Private Mason and Miss Claridge, who is a member of a well-known sporting family, are both from the Wellington district.