DIRECTOR OF SIGNALS R.N.Z.A.F. Officer To Retire

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 3

DIRECTOR OF SIGNALS R.N.Z.A.F. Officer To Retire

(New Zealana Press Association) WELLINGTON. January 6.

In 1930 22-year-old Christ-chuurch-born Reginald James Gibbs became the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s first signaller. This month he retires as Director of Signals. He joined as a leading aircraftman wireless operator and mechanic. Carrier pigeons, the Morse key, and a “crackly” wireless were his tools of trade. Wing Commander Gibbs was educated in Christchurch and before he was 20 was successfully operating his own radio engineering business. In 1937 he was sent to the Electrical and Wireless School of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell.

He was promoted to sergeant on his return to New Zealand. In 1938, with another sergeant, he became the first officer commissioned out of the ranks in the Royal New .Zealand Air Force. He was then put in command of the Electrical and Wireless School and was responsible for the hundreds of war-time wireless operators and mechanics.

In 1941 he was posted to R.N.Z.A.F. Headquarters in Wellington and was appointed staff officer td look after one of the most important functions of wartime radio—radar. He was awarded the 0.8. E. for his specialist duties in this field. He was promoted wing commander and appointed Director of R.N.Z.A.F. Signals in 1949.