VOLUNTARY AIDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25142, 5 February 1943, Page 6

VOLUNTARY AIDS

PRESENTATION OF AWARDS Voluntary Aids formed an impressive guard pf honour for her Excellency, Lady Newall, commandant-in-chief of the Voluntary Aids in New Zealand, when she arrived at the R.S.A. Hall yesterday afternoon to present Red Cross awards. Accompanied by the Mayoress (Mrs A. H. Allen), Colonel J.,G. Jeffery, A.D.C., and Mrs Jeffery, her Excellency was received by the Mayor (Mr A. H. Allen), the president of the Otago Centre of the Red Cross (Mr Charles Smith) and Mrs Smith, the director of Voluntary Aids for Otago (Miss E. L. Wilkins), and a member of the executive (Mrs Reginald Dawson). The Dominion president of the New Zealand Red Cross Society (Sir Heaton Rhodes) was also present. After brief speeches by Miss Wilkins and Mr Smith, Lady Newall expressed her pleasure in presenting the awards. The Red Cross was a great organisation, she said, and was doing wonderful work in curing the ill, relieving suffering, and looking after prisoners of war.

The merit medal for devotion to duty and proficiency in Red Cross work was presented to Mrs Margaret Ellison. Thirty senior nursing certificates were then presented to Voluntary Aids and certificates to 12 members of the transport section. The Montecillo Cup, which is competed for each year by all detachments, and which was awarded to the Mornington Detachment for 1942 and 1943, was accepted by the captain, Miss Helen Weir.