Notable general dead

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 6

Notable general dead

One of New Zealand’s senior divisional commanders in World War 11, MajorGeneral Graham Beresford Parkinson, died yesterday in The Princess Margaret Hospital, Christchurch. He was 82.

General Parkinson, will be interred with full military honours in a soldiers plot at the Ruru Lawn Cemetery after a service at Christchurch Cathedral at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Born in Wellington, General Parkinson was educated at Wellington College and entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1914. He graduated in 1916 and served with the Ist N.Z.E.F. in France and Belgium until the end of World War I.

For 10 years from 1920 he was officer in charge of harbour defences at Army headquarters and also spent two years attending a gunnery staff course of instruction in Britain.

When World War II began he left New Zealand with the First Echelon in January, 1940, as commanding officer of the Fourth Field Regiment of the Royal New Zealand Artillery.

He served with distinction in the Western Desert in 1940 and in Greece and Egypt in 1941. In August, 1941. he was promoted to brigadier. His leadership in the Grecian campaign was officially cited as being largely responsible for the successful withdrawal of a large part of the New Zealand force from the infamous Penions Gorge. At the battle of Molos and

during the withdrawal and evacuation he was singled out for special mention for his calm gallantry. In 1944, after MajorGeneral H. K. Kippenberger had been seriously wounded, General Parkinson took over command of the New Zealand Division in Italy. He was in command during the storming of Cassino and retained command of the division until the former corps commander, General Sir Bernard Freyberg. returned to the division.

After the war, General Parkinson was posted as New Zealand military liaison officer in London until 1949.

His last apopintment was as commander of the Southern Military District from 1949 to 1951, when he retired from the Regular Army with

the rank of major-general. He was awarded the D.S.O. in 1942, after having been mentioned in dispatches three times, and a Bar to the D.S.O. in 1944. In the King’s Birthday Honours of 1945 he was awarded the C.B.E. In 1947, the United States awarded him the American Legion of Merit. General Parkinson served as managing secretary of the St John Ambulance Association for 10 years until 1961. A Christchurch veteran of the Italian campaign last evening described General Parkinson as “a great soldier in his own right and a real soldiers’ man.” General Parkinson is survived by his wife.