General an author

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 10

General an author

The New Zealand-born commander of the British Far East Land Forces, Major - General W. B. Thomas—a soldier who has written two books—will arrive in Christchurch today in the course of an eight-day visit to New Zealand.

i General Thomas is due early this evening aboard a Royal Air Force Britannia aircraft. After visiting a sis-

ter who lives at Halswell, and other relatives at Motueka, he will make his round of official calls in Wellington on Tuesday. General Thomas was appointed to his present post last October. During World War 11, he served with the New Zealand Division, having been commissioned as a Territorial officer in New Zealand in 1939. He served throughout the war with the 23rd battalion.

General Thomas first saw action in Crete in 1941 where he won the Military Cross and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was wounded in Crete and taken prisoner. After three attempts, he finally succeeded in escaping from a prison camp in Salonika and travelled across occupied northern Greece to the monastery of Mount Athos, from whence, after several months, he was able to steal a boat with other escapers and sail to Turkey. He was awarded a bar to his Military Cross for exploits connected with the escape.

General Thomas then rejoined his battalion in Syria and served with it throughout the North African campaign, finishing in Tunis where, at the age of 23, he took command of his battalion and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Transferring to the British Army, General Thomas joined the Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1947. He subsequently saw action in Kenya during the Mau Mau insurrection, and in Malaya. General Thomas’s two books are “Dare to be Free," an account of his war-time escape, and “A Touch of Pitch,” a novel based on the Mau Mau in Kenya. He has also had a radio play broadcast by the 8.8. C.

Shed fire.—Fire spreading along a boundary fence from burning rubbish on a neighbouring property damaged a small shed and a concrete block garage belonging to Mr A. Calje, of 46 Mountford Street, Spreydon, recently. In an earlier report it was stated that the fire began on Mr Calje’s property.