Empire Medal for Feilding Airman

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 207, 1 September 1943, Page 4

Empire Medal for Feilding Airman

DISTINCTION IN CANADA (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 31. The. British Empire Medal has been awarded to Pilot Officer Cyril Foster Johnson, 8.N.Z.A.F., sou of Mr. and Mrs. J. Johnson, of Grey Street, Feilding, reports the R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service. The award has been made on the recommendation of the Governor-General of Canada (the Earl of Athlone) and is the seventh British Empire Medal to be won by a New Zealand airman in this war. Pilot Officer Johnson, who is 25 yean of age, was born in England and cams to New Zealand with his parents I*s years ago. He attended the Waipukurau and Palmerston North Central Primary Schools and the Palmerston North Technical High School and worked in his father’s grocery store at Feilding before entering the B.N.Z.A.F. in July, 1941. He trained as a wireless operatorair gunner in New Zealand and in Canada and was retained in Canada for duty. lti July, 1942, he was slightly injured in an aircraft accident. He was commissioned from the rank of flightsergeant in February of this year. The British Empire Medal is awarded to n.c.o.’s and aircraftmen for acta of gallant conduct in the performance of Air Force duty other than iu action or in the air, or for specially distinguished or meritorious service of a high I standard.