Lord Douglas Due In N.Z. Next- Week

Northern Advocate, 22 December 1948, Page 8

Lord Douglas Due In N.Z. Next- Week

AUCKLAND, Wed. (Sp.)— Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, will visit New Zealand at the end of the month. He is arriving at Auckland by flyingboat on December 28.

Lord Douglas was recently appointed to the board of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. A son of Professor Robert Douglas, Lord Douglas was born on December 23, 1892, and educated at Tonbridge and Lincoln College, Oxford He commanded two fighter squadrons in France during the First World War, after which he joined Handley Page, Ltd-., as chief pilot. In 1920 he returned to the RAF, where his distinguished career culminated in his becoming successively A.O.C. in C Fighter Command, 1940, A.O.C. in C Middle East, 1943, and A.O.C. in C Coastal Command, 1944. As Marshal of the Royal Air Force. Sir Sholto Douglas, he served as Commander in Chief an*! Military Governor in the British zone of Germany from April, 1946, to November, 1947.

He was created a Baron in the 1948 New Year Honours List. In July, 1948, he was invited by the Minister of Civil Aviation (Lord Pakenham) to carry out an investigation into those parts of the Civil Aviation Act concerned with the appointment of agents and associates of BOAC. More recentlj" he was a member of the committee of five appointed to review the organisation of the Air Ministry. Besides the G.C.8., M.C.. and D.F.C.. Lord Douglas holds 11 foreign decorations.