FEATHERSTON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1943, Page 3

FEATHERSTON

RETURNED SOLDIERS WARMLY. WELCOMED HOME. (“Times-Age” Special.) The local soldiers who returned yesterday were met at the railway station by a large crowd of people-. The Mayor of Featherston (Mr J. W. Card), the Mayor of Martinborough, the chairman of the County Council, and the Red Cross Society and Patriotic Committee representatives were among those present. A warm welcome was accorded the men. Transport was made available in which to take the men to their respective homes.

Miniature Rifle Club. The following were the scores in a competition held by the Featherston Miniature Rifle Club —D. Flynn 99, M. Hodder and B. Williams 98, L. Rasmussen, A. Burt 97, K. Feast 95, A. Cross, H. McNamara, J. Buck 94, D. Feast 93, N. McNamara 91, Mrs Clark. Mrs. Wilson and C. Foster 90. B. Burt, Mrs Thurston, R. Johnson 89. J. Moriarity 88, K. Harris 87, G. White, D. Burt 86, A. Johnson 85, J. Gain 83, J. Arthur 78, G. Cole 76, L. Wall 74, Mrs Jury 72, I. Cross 68. F. thasland 63, Mrs S. Hodder 37. Personal. Mrs J. Buck and Mrs W. Barker, who received word of the death of their younger sister, Mrs E. Moorcraft, at Remuera, have left for Auckland. Featherston Born Soldiers. The youngest of the three sons (all Featherstonians) of Mr and Mrs A. C. Holms, formerly of Featherston and now of Waipukurau, Sergeant Robert J. H. Holms, of the Divisional Cavalry, who had served in Britain, Greece and Libya, being wounded in the final phase of the battle of El Alamein, in October, has just returned to New Zealand. He trained in 1939 with the First Echelon, but, on promotion in January, 1940, was transferred to the Second Echelon. His older brother, lan, who also enlisted at the outbreak of war but had to undergo an operation to qualify for early service, made the supreme sacrifice in October, 1940, as a member of the 22nd Wellington Infantry Battalion, while the Second Echelon was manning the front line in Kent during the progress of the Battle of Britain, being struck by enemy bomb splinters—the only casualty among the New Zealanders. The eldest of the family, Archie, an officer in the First Echelon, serving in Divisional Signals, was invalided home from Egypt in December, 1941. Incidentally, the only son of the late Mr Robert Holms (of Gladstone and later Dannevirke, a veteran of the Great War period), Corporal James Holms, is serving in the Middle East. COSY THEATRE “SONS OF THE SEA" Tonight's programme will bo headed by the thrilling drama of the sea, "Sons of the Sea,” starring Michael Redgrave and Valerie Hobson.