THE AIR FORCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24542, 26 March 1943, Page 2

THE AIR FORCE

senior mmuTiuiNß NEW WING'COMMANDERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday Promotions of a number of Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel were gazetted to-night. They are as follows: — Wing-commanders to be group-cap-tains (temporary). —Sir Robert Hanluton Clark-Halt, Cyril Eaton Kay and acting-Group-Captain Geoffrey Isewland Roberts. Wing-commanders to be acting-group-captains.—John Seabrook and Malcolm Frederick Calder. ■ . Squadron-leaders to be acting-wing-commanders. —Arthur Cohvell Upham, Ronald Affleck Kirkup, Stuart Lindsay Gilkison, George Bruce Bolt and Donald Charles Campbell. DISTINGUISHED SERVICES OFFICERS' VARIED EXPERIENCES Group-Captain Sir Robert Clark-Hall, K.B.E.j C.M.G., D.5.0., joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force shortly after the outbreak of war and was given command of a New Zealand station. He was formerly air marshal in the Royal Air Force, and before his retirement to Christchurch in 1934 was Air Officer Commanding the Coastal Area ami Dirfictor of Eauipment in the Air

Group-Captain C. JO. Kay, D.F.C., is a son of Mr. D. Kay, of Mangere, and was an experienced pilot before the war. In 1930 he and Lieutenant H. L. Piper flew from England to Australia, and he was chosen to flv the New Zealand entry with Squadron-Leader J. D. Hewett in the Melbourne Centenary Air I?ace. He was awarded the D.F.C. for gallantry on active service in 1940. Group-Captain G. N. Roberts, A.F.C., was formerly Officer Commanding a North Island base. Born in Inglewood, Taranaki, he left in 1928 to join the R.A.F. and saw service in India before returning to New Zealand _in 1936. He was a, member of the Christchurch Territorial Squadron at the outbreak of war.

Acting-Group-Captain John Seabrook, A.F.C., is a well-known Auckland business man and is at present Air Attache in the New Zealand Legation at Washington. He served in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force in France and Egypt in the last war, and afterward was a foundation-member of the Auckland Aero Club. Acting-Wing-Commander R. A. Kirkup is one of the best-known commercial pilots in New Zealand. After learning to fly at the Auckland Aero Club he took licences in instructing and ground engineering and was for a time instructor to the Canterbury Aero Club. Later he was appointed second pilot to East Coast Airways, and before the war held a commission in the Territorial Air Force. Acting-Wing-Commander S. L. Gilkison, of Inveircargill, was successively instructor to the Southland and Western Federated Clubs and a pilot for Cook Strait Airways before the war, as well as a reserve officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. He was called up at the outbreak of war and has served in several departments of the Air Force. Acting-Wing-Commander G. B. Bolt is another commercial pilot who had extensive flying experience with Imperial Airways and several companies in New Zealand before the war. He learned to fly at Kohimarama in 1917 and has taken a prominent part in New Zealand aviation ever since. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE MEN OP THE SERVICES Considerations governing the granting of financial assistance to men in the armed forces, as carried out by the Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board, were described in a broadcast last night by Mr. H. E. Combs, M.P. for Wellington Suburbs, a member of the board. Mr. Combs said that, following the increased payments made to men of the armed forces and the subsequent reduction by the Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board of some of the grants, there had been some heartburning. In no case, however, was the amount of the reduction quite equal to the gross value of the increase in income resulting from the War Cabinet's decision to increase servicemen's pay. The board had authority to grant assistance up to £;s a week and all applications were treated individually. The board had dealt with 26,000 applications and reviews, and had paid out as a charge oil the War Expenses Account over £300,000 It had also built up a contingent liability of a further £200,000 'on periodical payments. NAVAL VESSEL ANOTHER CRAFT LAUNCHED The eighth of its typo to be built in Auckland lor the Royal New Zealand Navy, another Fairmile motor patrol vessel was launched from the yards of Associated Boatbuilders, Limited, Freeman's Bay, yesterday morning. The craft, which was the third Fairmile completed at the same yard, was launched by Mrs. C. H. Wild, wife of one of the directors. It was blessed by the Rev. Jasper Calder, and the Mayor, Mr J. A. C. Allum, gave a brief address. The Fairmile class are 112 ft. long with a beam of 18ft. and are used extensively around the English coast for the protection of shipping. Local builders have reason for pride in the fact that the boats constructed in Auckland are completed in about 20 per cent less time than those in England. Associated Boatbuilders already have another Fairmile on the sliips half completed, and this should be ready for launching within the next two months.