REPORTED MISSING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 5

REPORTED MISSING

NEW ZEALAND PILOTS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 13. Pilot-Officer lan Lawry Gray, R.A.F., son of Mr. John Gray, Devonport, in reported missing as the result of air operations yesterday. His parents received official advice this morning. Well known in Auckland by reason of his sporting activities, Pilot-Officer Gray was educated atf Takapuna Grammar School and joined the staff of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company. He took up flying before the war and was trained by the late Squadron-Leader Allan at Mangere and went to Wigram with a short service commission in the Royal New Zealand Air .Force. He left the employ of the dairy company on June 11, 1938, and took up his studies for the Air Force. On March 12 last he celebrated his twenty-first birthday. About the time he took up flying the Air Force had accepted a number of outstanding young athletes in New Zealand, and PilotOfficer Gray was no exception. He was a good footballer, cricketer, boxer, and lawn tennis player, and had also made a name for himself in swimming and golf. As a result of air operations' on May 11 Pilot-Officer Henry Macale Murray, aged 19, a New Zealander serving with the Royal Air Force, has been posted as missing. Advice to this effect was received from the Air Ministry by Mr. F. M. Murray, Auckland, brother of the missing airman. PilotOfficer Murray was born in Dunedin and was educated at Wellington College, the Otago Boys' High School, and the Wairarapa High School. Later he resided for 18 months in, Auckland before leaving for London, where he arrived in June, 1938. He joined the Royal Air Force and gained flying experience at various training bases in Britain and France before the outbreak of the war.