SERGEANT-AT-ARMS APPOINTED

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30742, 5 May 1965, Page 1

SERGEANT-AT-ARMS APPOINTED

(N.Z. Press Association? WELLINGTON, May 4. Wing Commander R. M. McKay, A.F.C., has been appointed Ser-geant-at-Arms and will take up his appointment when Parliament assembles on May 27.

He succeeds Group Captain Manson, who has retired after 28 years’ Parliamentary service and who will assume the duties of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, the ceremonial position which became

vacant on the death last year of Squadron Leader J. E. Seal.

The appointments were announced by the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) tonight. Wing Commander McKay, who is an old boy of Christchurch Boys’ High School, is a regular officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. which he joined as a pilot just before World War 11, and in which he has served in New Zealand and Britain since.

He was the first pilot to fly a jet aircraft in New Zealand. His aerobatic demonstrations with the Gloster Meteor fighter, and his lectures on jet propulsion for aircraft are widely recalled. Later Wing Commander McKay commanded the R.N.Z.A.F. flying-boat base at

Hobsonville and more recently served as a director in various staff appointments at Air Force Headquarters, Wellington. Group Captain Manson served in the Ist N.Z.E.F. when he was awarded the Military Cross and rose to Captain. Between the wars he commanded the Hawke’s Bay Regiment. He served- in the Royal New Zealand Air Force from 1939 to 1945. Group Captain Manson has been prominently associated with the Patriotic and Canteen Fund Board as its honorary treasurer, and has also been a member of the Air Force Association and the Returned Services’ Association.