FROM RANKS TO COMMAND

Evening Star, Issue 23177, 28 January 1939, Page 13

FROM RANKS TO COMMAND

AIR-COMMODORE K. R. PARK FORMERLY OF DUNEDIN New Zealanders stand high in the eyes of the Royal Air Force authorities in England, and if the successful career of a former Dunedin boy is any criterion, this is easily understandable. Air-commodore K. R. Park left the Dominion as a ranker duriifg the Great War and was recently appointed Chief of Staff of the Fighter Command in England. He is the youngest son of Professor James Park, dean of the mining faculty at the University of Otago for many years. Keith Rodney Park was a pupil of the Otago Boys’ High School and left New Zealand as a gunner in the New Zealand Artillery with the Fourth Reinforcements. Commissioned on the field at Gallipoli for merit and devotion to duty he was later transferred to the 29th Division of glorious memory. He went to the Western Front with his unit after the evacuation of the peninsula, where he foresaw the large part that the air was destined to play in war. His application for a transfer to the Royal Air Force w r as granted, and he remained in that arm of the service, commanding 48 Squadron, Bristol Fighters, from 1916 to the end of the War and being wounded on two occasions. His ability during the war focused the attention of the authorities upon him. and he was one of the few who retained their commissions after the cessation of hostilities. With the rank of wing-commander ho filled important posts in Egypt and South America, and shortly after his return to England some years ago he was the only New Zealander upon whom the distinction of an honorary M.A. degree, Oxford, was conferred. On the accession of King George VI. to the throne he was one of the four air aides-de-camp selected. Promotion to the rank of Air-commodore and his present appointment came a few months ago.