POST WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS

Southland Times, Issue 25666, 8 May 1945, Page 4

POST WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS

WELLINGTON AIRMAN Flight Lietitenant W. J. Wakelin, eldest son of Mr and Mrs W. J. Wakelin, Hataitai, has been accepted by British Overseas Airways as a pilot, on secondment from the R.N.Z.A.F. Flight Lieutenant Wakelin, who was educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School and Southland Boys’ High School, enlisted in the R.N.Z.A.F. early in the war and left New Zealand in April, 1940. Before leaving he married Miss Isobel Rickman, only daughter of Mr and Mrs J. H. Rickman, Hataitai, who now lives in Bournemouth, together with her young son.

Flight Lieutenant Wakelin was one of the first four New Zealanders to be posted to the giant 25-ton Sunderland aircraft and spent the 1940-41 winter flying long hours over the North Atlantic. Oh one trip his Sunderland sighted survivors of the armed merchantman Rajputana, which had helped to escort the convoy in which he went to Britain.

After completing his tour of duty with the Sunderlands, in which he did 1600 operational hours, he went through his pilot’s course and joined the famous No. 75 (New Zealand) Lancaster Bombing Squadron, which concentrated last year on German’s synthetic oil plants. His work with the Lancasters, “Ruhr bashing,” as the New Zealanders called it, completed his service in the air. Flight Lieutenant Wakelin was a pupil at the Southland Boys’ High School in 1926. His father was at one time inspector of factories at Invercargill.