George Medal Awards

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30568, 10 October 1964, Page 12

George Medal Awards

Awards of the George Medal to New Zealanders include that to Flying Officer Harold Harvey, formerly of Sumner but then of the Royal Air Force station at Swinderby. Lincolnshire, England, for his actions on June 14, 1950, when an aircraft crashed in a field and caught fire. Flying Officer Harvey, the navigator of the aircraft, suffered multiple injuries in the crash. He pulled the unconscious signaller from the burning wreckage and carried or dragged him to safety and gave the unconscious man first aid until help arrived.

Flying Officer Harvey was born in Sumner in 1923 and received his early education at the Sumner District High School. When he left school he joined the staff of the Sumner Borough Council as a junior clerk. He left the council’s employ to enter the Royal New Zealand Air Force at the outbreak of the Second World War.

After training in New Zealand and Canada he was attached to the Royal Air Force and served in a bomber squadron. At the end of the war he returned to New Zealand with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He was employed by J. Ballantyne and Company, Ltd., but later returned to England when he regained his commission with the R.A.F. He is still with the R.A.F. in England. His parents, Mr and Mrs F. F. Harvey, live at 10 Dryden street, Sumner.