QUEEN’S COLOUR PARADED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27678, 7 June 1955, Page 12

QUEEN’S COLOUR PARADED

BOY ENTRANTS OF R.N.Z.A.F. SIR WILLOUGHBY NORRIE ATTENDS CEREMONY (New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, June 6. The Boy entrants of the Royal New Zealand Air Force stationed at Woodbourne today paraded for the first time in New. Zealand the Colour presented to the service by Her Majesty the Queen at Whenuapai on December 28. 1953. After weeks of rehearsing, the entrants, under the watchful and interested eyes of the heads of the services and civic dignitaries, went through the intricate ceremonial similar in essentials to the famous Queen's Birthday ceremony of Trooping the Colour, and they earned a “Well done” from the GovernorGeneral (Sir Willoughby Norrie), who flew from Auckland for the occasion. The Colour was brought to Woodr bourne from Whenuapai on Thursday under the care of a colour party headed as bearer by Flying Officer D. V. Mcßride, and today, to a roll of drums and music by the massed bands of the Territorial Air Force and of the Woodbourne station, it was handed over to the Woodbourne colour party, headed by Flying Officer F. M. Smart. Thereafter it was paraded In squadron strength before the visiting heads of services, including the Chief of the Air Staff (Air Vice Marshal W. H. Merton) and the Chief of the General Staff (Major-General W. G. Gentry) and a large gathering of the public, many of whom had travelled long distances to be present. The Minister of Defence (Mr T. L. Macdonald) was represented by the Postmaster-General (Mr T. P. Shand). Addressing the parade, his Excellency recalled the day when Her Majesty presented the Colour, and said that it was right and proper that the first parading should be carried out by the youngest members of the Air Force. He told the boy entrants that it was the co-operation by all arms that brought victory in ■the Second World War, and he reminded them of their elders’ deeds of valour, deeds that were recorded not only in the annals of the Air Force, but in the hearts of the peoples of the British Empire.