COMET’S VISIT TO CITY

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28399, 4 October 1957, Page 15

COMET’S VISIT TO CITY

Model Presented To Boys’ High School

To commemorate the flight of the Royal Air Force Transport Command Comet II to Christchurch on May 4 this year, a metal model of the aircraft has been presented to the Christchurch Boys’ High School by Air Marshal Sir Andrew McKee, officer com-manding-in-chief of the Royal Air Force Transport Command. Air Marshal McKee, an old boy of the school, flew to Christchurch in the Comet and while he was at the school, he arranged to send the model.

The headmaster (Mr J. Leggat) showed it to members of the school board of governors at its meeting yesterday. The model, which is mounted on a wooden pedestal, is about nine inches long.

In an letter to Mr Leggat, Air Marshal McKee offered to the school the air commodore’s flag which was flown above the headquarters on the Foggia plain in Italy when he commanded No. 205 Group in which many New Zealanders served. The last war service of the group, a bomber group, was to supply the New Zealand Division when it made its rush into Venice. When the group left Italy in September, 1945, the flag was ceremonially lowered. Mr Leggat told the board he had accepted Air Marshal McKee’s offer on behalf of the school.