R.N.Z.N.V.R. CAREER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 25 January 1944, Page 2

R.N.Z.N.V.R. CAREER

MUCH-DECORATED WELLINGTONIAN Auckland, Jan. 24. One of the most-decorated young New Zealanders of this war is Lieutenant J. McDonald, R.N.Z.N.V.R., who, at the outbreak of war, was in charge of the stamp box in the Bank of New South Wales in Wellington. He was then a member of the Wellington Division of the reserve and was 17. He received orders to come to Auckland on. a Sunday, called on his one subordinate on the bank’s staff, handed over the keys of the stamp box, and asked him to report to the manager of the bank on the following day that he had been called up and was going to Auckland.

Now Lieutenant McDonald is acting in command of a motor torpedo-boat flotilla that was formerly commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Dickens, a great-grandson of Charles Dickens. Lieutenant McDonald has been decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross and a bar to it, has been mentioned in dispatches, and holds the Royal Humane Society’s Medal for rescuing seamen after one of the motor torpedo-boats had sunk.

When he arrived in Auckland Lieutenant McDonald was posted to a gun crew of a ship which was trading to Nauru Island for phosphate cargoes. Later he was one of a draft of ordinary seamen sent to England for training. He passed very high in his classes, but was too young to be commissioned as a sub-lieutenant. Instead, he was commissioned as a midshipman, posted to the motor torpedo-boat section, and joined a flotilla operating in the Ericlish Channel. He received the D.S.C a few months later and since then has risen steadily in rank and has been further decorated.

Those who know him say that he is particularly reticent about his doings and most of his activities have to be gleaned from other sources.