RETURN TO N.Z.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 4

RETURN TO N.Z.

SERVICE PERSONNEL DISTINGUISHED CAREERS LINCOLN BOMBER’S VISIT (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 25. An announcment that .a modified Lincoln bomber would visit New Zealand in October was made by Squadron Leader J. J. McDowell, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Auckland, on his return from Britain by the Rangitata on Saturday. Squadron Leader McDowell came to New Zealand a year ago in the Lancaster Aries which made a tour of Air Force establishments in New Zealand and Australia to give details of developments in navigational aids, and he has since been instructing at the Shorebury navigational school. He was one of a small group of members of three New Zealand services who returned from Britain on the liner. Last W.A.A.C.’s From Britain

They included the last two members of the New Zealand W.A.A.C. in the United Kingdom, Sergeant K. F. Colson, Auckland, and Staff-Sergeant H. A. S. Heath. Palmerston North, who had been serving on the New Zealand Army clerical staff at Halifax House, London.

A claim that he is the last lancecorporal in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force was made by Lance-Coropral G. C. R- Hay, Wellington, who returned from provost and general duties in the United Kingdom with his wife and twin daughters. The first New Zealander to be granted a bursary at King’s College, Cambridge, under the wartime scheme in 1945, Flight Lieutenant D. Tudhope, D.F.C.. Auckland, returned after completing the degrees of bachelor of arts and bachelor of laws. Before the war he was in the office of the Crown prosecutor at Auckland and was a student at Auckland University College. Prominent Fighter Pilot

A prominent New Zealand fighter pilot, Wing Commander R. D. Yule, D. 5.0., D.F.C., Royal Air Force. Invercargill, returned with his wife and two children for a short period of leave before taking an appointment at the Royal Air Force headquarters at Singapore. He had been absent from the Dominion since 1938 and served in the Battle of Britain with the Tactical Air Force during the invasion of Europe, and later with the Air Staff Policy Department at the Air Ministry. One of the first six members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to join the British paratroopers, Captain A. R. McNeil, Lower Hutt, returned with his wife and young son. Captain McNeil went overseas with the Seventh Reinforcements and was seconded to the British Army in the Middle East. He saw service in India and Siam and has spent the past nine months on parachute instruction in Britain.