SENIOR POST AT WIGRAM

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27638, 20 April 1955, Page 3

SENIOR POST AT WIGRAM

SQUADRON LEADER W. D. H SMITH APPOINTED

Squadron Leader W. D. H. Smith, of Hanmer Springs, at present deputydirector of postings at Royal New Zealand Air Force Headquarters, Wellington, has been appointed to command the administrative wing at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Wigram. He will succeed Wing Commander E. B. Waters, who will take up an appointment in the Air Department. One of the i most senior war-time navigators still serving with the R.N.Z.A.F., Squadron Leader Smith was born at Hanmer Springs in 1914. He graduated bachelor of commerce from Canterbury University College in 1938 and gained his bachelor of arts degree there in 1950. After entering the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1941, he trained in Canada as a navigator under the Empire Air Training Scheme before being commissioned in 1942. He was given a permanent commission in the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1951. Squadron Leader Smith was station navigation officer at Wigram from 1945 to 1946, chief instructor at the Air Navigation School, Wigram, in 1946, and commander of the school from 1950 to 1952. In that year, he was appointed to the Directorate of Operations at R.N.Z.A.F. Headquarters, Wellington, as navigation officer. He has been deputy-director of postings at Headquarters since 1953.