AIR FORCE CASUALTIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23718, 26 July 1940, Page 8

AIR FORCE CASUALTIES

PILOT FROM WELLINGTON

[by telegraph—owx correspondent] "WELLINGTON, Thursday • Cabled advice has. been received by Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Fleming; of Amritsar . Street, Khandallah, Wellington, that their eldest son, Pilot-Officer. James Payne Taine. -Fleming, is re-, ported to have lost his life as a.result of air operations. .The Air Council expressed its profound sympathy. Pilot-Officer Fleming left New Zealand in July, 1938, on a short-service commission in the Royal Air Force, and on the completion, of his training was posted to the Coastal Command. He was stationed in"'Scotland. Born in Hamilton 20 years ago Pilot-Officer Fleming was educated at the Khandallah school and Wellington College. Before leaving for England he was with" Imperial Chemical Industries, Limited, for a short time. At school he was an all-round sportsman. Pilot-Officer Fleming was one of the fourth generation of New Zealanders. His great-grand-father on his mother's side was a member of the original New Zealand Land Company with Edward Gibbon Wakefield. AUCKLAND-BORN AIRMAN FLYING-OFFICER WATSON The Dominion airman Flying-Officer Samuel Miles Mackenzie Watson, who was reported missing, believed killed, in air operations, on Wednesday, was a grandson of the late Mr. William Watson, formerly chairman of directors of the Bank of ."*Neiv Zealand. His father is Mr. William Watson, of Halswell Street, Wellington. Born in Auckland in 1913, FlyingOfficer Watson received his education at King's School and afterward" at Wanganui College. He graduated at Cambridge University, where" ho won his-half-blue for golf. At Cambridge he was an enthusiastic member of the Territorial Air Force. When lie returned to New Zealand he' became a. partner in the stockbroking firm of William Watsoq> and Sons, in Wellington. About the same time he took up flying as a member of the Wellington Aero Club, and was also a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Territorial Air Force. He went to England some months before war broke out as one of the pilots to flv -Yickers Wellington bombers to New Zealand.' when plans were altered he was attached to tlie Royal Air Force. He was continuously on'active service after war was declared.