AMONG THOSE ON FURLOUGH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 35, 11 February 1944, Page 4

AMONG THOSE ON FURLOUGH

PROMINENT WANGANUI MEN TAIHAPE SERGEANT WHO WON THE D.C.M. Many of the officers and other ranks who have returned with the second furlough draft after service in the Middle East are well known in Wanganui and district. Prominent among them is Captain C. N. Armstrong, M.C., a son of Mr. and Mrs. N. G. Armstrong, Wanganui. Captain Armstrong, a former member of the Wanganui City Council, is a partner in the legal firm of Armstrong, Barton and Armstrong He is an old boy of the Wanganui Collegiate School, which he attended from 1924 to 1927 He obtained his LL.B, degree at Victoria University College, Wellington, and had 10 years’ legal experience before returning to Wanganui. Captain Armstrong distinguished himself by making three escapes while a prisoner of war. The final attempt was successful. (See story elsewhere).

Also returned with the furlough draft is Lieutenant M. B. Luxford, a former Wanganui representative oarsman. He was a member of the Union Boating Club and was with the crew selected to represent the club at the Centennial regatta held in Melbourne in 1934. He also rowed in lhe eight-oar crew which won the Kerr Cup on the Paramatta River, Nexx- South Wales, in the same year.

Deeds of gallantry in the Western Desert which helped to make the 2nd N.Z.E.F. conspicuous are recalled by the return ol Sergeant R. F. Garmonsway, D.C.M., a son of Mr. Frank Garmonsway, Rangiwaea, Taihape. Sergeant Garmonsway was farming in the Taihape district before enlisting with the First Echelon. He subse-’ quently saw active service in Greece. Crete and the Libyan Desert. In July, 1942, while the New Zealanders were fighting at Ruweisat Ridge, Sergeant Garmonsway won the Distinguished Conduct Medal. As a result of the same action, Lieutenant Keith Elliott, then a sergeant, was awarded the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Martin H. A. Clay, a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Clay, Heads Road, Wanganui, who has returned from the Middle East, is a former Wanganui representative Rugby player, and was also a member of the Wanganui Rowing Club. He was on the staff of the Bank of New Zealand and was transferred from Wanganui Io Wellington. He enlisted in the South Island early in the war. Lieutenat Clay played Rugby in the Middle East in teams which included two other well-known Rugby players, Lieutenant D. G. Barton (now a prisoner of war) and Corporal K. Welsh. (A list, of Wanganui and district personnel who arrived back yesterday appears on page 3).