INJURED IN SPAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 263, 5 October 1936, Page 9

INJURED IN SPAIN.

NEW ZEALAND PILOT. LIFE OF ADVENTURE. WELLINGTON, Oct. d. Well known in aviation ci/jles as a most enterprising pilot, Mr Ei-ic N. Griffiths, a New Zealander, who has been wounded in an air fight with rebel aeroplanes in Spain, has already packed much flying adventure into his young life. A son of Mr and Mrs W. Griffiths, of Muritai Road, Eastbourne, and an old boy of Wellington College, lie learned to fly with the Wairarapa Aero Club about five or six years ago. FlightLieutenant J. M. Buckeridge was his instructor. For ft time lie accompanied the late Squadron-Leader M. C. McGregor and the late “Scotty” Fraser in a barnstorming tour of the Dominion and then left for China, where he spent eight months in the service of various war lords and in ferrying machines from Shanghai to their headquarters. After that lie returned to New Zealand and acquired a commercial pilot’s license. He joined the second Byrcl Antarctic Expedition in 1933. Sir MacPherson Robertson’s announcement of the London-Mclbourne air race brought him back to New Zealand, however, and for some time he was engaged in an endeavour to raise finance for an entry in the race. In this he was unsuccessful, and about 18 months ago left for England, without any fixed plans'. There he found some work in aviation, and was employed for some time by Imperial Airways, Ltd. Then he was injured in a crash of a private machine in France. The last news his parents had of his whereabouts, until the cablegram announcing his progress toward recovery m Madrid hospital., was that he had entered the British Army and was in the Rifle Brigade. He had his twenty-first birthday in the Antarctic and liis twenty-third in Spam. The first intimation of his son’s adventure that Mr Griffiths had was in an Eastbourne bus. Mr Griffiths had read the news of the Spanish war, but the cablegram about Ins son was overlooked. He passed the paper to his seat companion. “Is this vour son who has been wounded in Spain?” the reader asked. “Don’t think so,", said Mr Griffiths. Then ho looked, and saw that it was.