LAND OF HIS BIRTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 96, 24 April 1942, Page 4

LAND OF HIS BIRTH

U.S. MILITARY ATTACHE

RETURN TO NEW ZEALAND

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, April 23. A United States army officer who is a New Zealander by birth has arrived in Auckland to take up his appointment as United States military attache! to New Zealand. He is Colonel John H. Nankivell, General Staff Corps, and will be on the staff of BrigadierGeneral Patrick Hurley, first United States Minister to the Dominion. Colonel Nankivell was born in Christchurch and received some of his early education in Wellington and Petone. He is a descendant of a New Zealand pioneer, Robert Nankivell, who came out from England in the sailing ship Bolton, and landed on Petone beach in 1840, to begin his duties as surveyor to the New Zealand Company. In 1904 Colonel Nankivell left New Zealand and went to the United States, where he received further education and entered the United States army in the regular forces. He has risen to his present rank from that of private. From 1908 to 1910 he served in Mindanao, Philippine Islands, in

the campaign against the Moros, and from 1912 to 1916 he served in the expeditionary force which campaigned first of all on the Mexican border and later went into Mexico. He also served in Franoe with the 157 th InfantryRegiment, which was drawn from Colorado, being major commanding the Ist battalion of the regiment. Colonel Nankivell has also seen service in Panama and in many parts of the United States, his last appointment being G (1), corresponding with the New Zealand appointment of general staff officer (Ist grade), for the 6th Corps Area, with headquarters in Chicago. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of Colorado for services to that State. Mrs. Nankivell, an American, is still in the United States. They have four children, and their eldest son is now serving as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps.. Colonel Nankivell, who is bigger than many All Black footballers, has retained his interest in New Zealand, and has visited the Dominion on several occasions since he went to the United States. He still has a number of relatives in the country.