New Chief Of General Staff

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 11

New Chief Of General Staff

Brigadier R. B. Dawson. commander of the Northern Military District, will be promoted to major-general and will become the Chief of the General Staff when MajorGeneral W. S. McKinnon retires on March 31 next rear. The Minister of Defence (Mr Eyre) announced his appointment on Saturday. Brigadier Dawson was commissioned in the Regular Force after graduating from the Royal Military College. Duntroon, in 1938 and went overseas w'ith the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force as a staff captain in May, 1940. He later held staff appointments with the sth Infantry Brigade, the 2nd New Zealand Division and the 6th Infantry Brigade, and earned a mention in dispatches and the D.S.O. for his services in the Middle East.

After returning to Australia in 1943 Brigadier Dawson became the New Zealand instructor at the Royal Military

[College, Duntroon. On his return to New Zealand in 1946. he was at Army Head-

quarters. In 1947 he became [commanding officer of the ' battalion in Japan.

After being reposted to the Regular Force in 1948, Brigadier Dawson held various staff and regimental appointments, until 1953 when he attended the Joint Services Staff College in the United Kingdom. In 1957 he was appointed chief New Zealand planner at the S.E.A.T.O. Military Planning Office in Bangkok. In 1960 Brigadier Dawson became Quartermaster-Gen-eral and a member of the Army Board. He was posted to Malaysia in 1962 to become the first New Zealander to command the 28th Commonwealth Brigade Group. In the New Year’s Honours List in 1965 he was created a Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the British Empire. After attending the Imperial Defence College in the United Kingdom in 1965, Brigadier Dawson returned to New Zealand to command the Northern Military District.