POLAND’S VICTORIA CROSS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 13 January 1944, Page 2

POLAND’S VICTORIA CROSS

AWARD TO FORMER NELSONIAN WING-COMMANDER A. 11. C. BOXER GAINS HIGH HONOUR I Rec. 1.20 p.m. London, Jan. 12. Poland’s Victoria Cross—Virtuti Militari' or the Silver Cross, which is the highest military award a Pole can wire—has been awarded to Wing Commander A. H. C. Boxer, Nelson. No account of how Wing Commander Boxer won the award can be given until after the war. He won the D.F.C. last March, the citation stating that he carried out several long-range sorties. Once when hundreds of miles from his base one of his engines failed but he reached base safely. Some time later he completed a return flight from a distant target under similar circumstances. He is a very reliable and determined pilot. Wing Commander Boxer married Assistant Section Officer Pamela Sword, W.A.A.F., in November, 1941. He was accepted as a member of the civil reserve of pilots in 1937 and gained his civil pilot’s A license after instruction with the Marlborough Aero Club at Blenheim. He was subsequently selected for a short service commission in the R.A.F. and left New Zealand in September, 1938, for training in the United Kingdom. Wing Commander Boxer was born in Hastings in 1916 and received his secondary education at Nelson College, where he passed the University Entrance examination. At College he was a member of the first XV and a prominent all-rounder at other sports. His mother is Mrs R. I. D. Boxer, Long Look Out, Nelson.—P.A. Special Correspondent.