REPORTED MISSING

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 28, 21 June 1940, Page 6

REPORTED MISSING

Pilot Officer R. W. Rootes, Of Wellington — Pilot Officer Reginald . William Rootes, son of Mr. and Mis. C. Rootes, Rongotai, Wellington, is missing and i> believed to have lost his life hiring air operations, according to a cable grain received recently by. his parents. ’ Pilot Officer Rootes, who is 20 years of age, was educated at Rongotai College. He was very 'keenly interested in aviation, and before joining the ground staff of the Wellington Aero Club used to spend all his spare time at the aerodrome. He was two years on . the ground staff, and then was appointed to a- short-service commission in . the Royal Air Force. He began training at Rongotai Aerodrome under Flight Lieutenant I. E. Rawnsley, and. was then transferred' to Wigram Aero drome. In July, last year he. left for England. He was well known and very popular in aviation circles in New Zea land. He only recently completed ■ a navigation course in England and .had' just been transferred to Ilyina bomb ers. A , ' It is a coincidence that his father, who is control officer." at iLmgota' Aerodrome, was in the Royal . Air Force in the last war. He was a mem her of the Old Contemptibles, but to ward the end of the war he was ap’’ pointed an observer in the Air Force (_•' - ,’’</■ , ( - ’.-'A —■— It was officially reported recently that Pilot Officer lan Geoffrey Gwynne Potts’is missing from air operations on June 1. His mother, is Mrs. Gwynne Potts, Taupo., 1 . N.Z.E.F. CASUALTIES! The following . casualties -in the Second '/'New Zealand Expeditionary Force are' officially announced Sergeant Maxwell Douglas Petersen: First New .Zealand General Hospital, missing, believed drowned.. His wife is Mrs. G. Petersen, Roseneath,' -Wellington. . . Private Norman Spence Traynor, 22nd Rifle Battalion, dic'd from'concus sion of brain due to injuries accidentally received during leave. Next, of kin not given; • ■ ■' . .