COMMANDANT AT WAIOURU

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 10

COMMANDANT AT WAIOURU

COLONEL J. I. BROOKE TO RETIRE

COLONEL A. H. ANDREWS TO TAKE POST

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 9.

Colonel J. 1. Brooke, 0.8. E., who has been commandant of Waiouru Camp since February, 1951, will retire from the Army on March 31. He will be succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel A. H. Andrews, 0.8. E., 8.E., A.R.A.N.Z., of Wellington, at present Deputy - Quartermaster - General at Army Headquarters. Colonel Brooke, who is 56, has had just over 33 years’ service in the New Zealand Army.' An old boy of Christ’s College and a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. where he. captained the" first fifteen in 1919, his final year, Colonel Brooke was the first New Zealander to be appointed, to the staff of the college, where he served as an instructor and company commander from 1935, to December. 1938. For two years from August, 1925, when he was seconded to the British Army, he served in India and the North-west Frontier. He later held various appointments in Christchurch. and on his return from Duntroon at the* end of 1938 was appointed commandant of .the Army Schools, then at Trentham. In 1940 Colonel Brooke went overseas with the Second Echelon as brigade major of the 6th Infantry Brigade, with which he served in the United Kingdom, in the Greek campaign, and in Egypt.. With the estab J lishment of the New Zealand Staff College at Palmerston North in late 1941, Colonel Brooke was appointed chief instructor (G. 5.0.1 an appointment he held until April, 1942, when he became G. 5.0.1 Training at Army Headquarters. From October, 1942, to November, 1944. Colonel Brooke was G. 5.0.1 (chief staff officer) with the 3rd New Zealand Division in the Pacific, and for his services jn this appointment was awarded the United States Legion of Merit. Back in New Zealand he filled several important posts. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrews, who is 42, joined the Army in 1936 as a lieutenant in the Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps, and after the outbreak of war left New, Zealand with the advance party in December. 1939. His appointments in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force included those of Assistant Director of Ordnance Services, and from December, 1942, to June, 1943, when he returned to New Zealand, he was commander of the New Zealand Division’s electrical and mechanical engineers. He resumed this appointment when he returned to the Middle East 12 months later, and held it until he was appointed manager of the Kiwi Rugby team, which toured the United Kingdom, France, and Germany after the war. He b represented Canterbury, Wellington, and the South Island at Rugby, and was chosen to tour Australia with the 1934 All Blacks, but was unable to travel.