AIR CASUALTIES

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 38, 30 August 1940, Page 3

AIR CASUALTIES

\ Six New Zealanders In List FOUR MEN KILLED The following official Air Force casualty list was issued in Wellington recently. Pilot Officer Ernest lan Parsons, D.F.C., missing in air operations. Mother: Mrs. W. 11. Parsons, 17.0 North Street, Timaru. Pilot Officer Herbert Gregory Ballantyne, killed in , aircraft accident. Mother i Mrs. E. E. Ballantyne, corner Market and St. • Aubyn Streets, Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. Pilot Officer Cecil Henry Hight? killed in air operations. Father: Mr N. E. Hight, East Road, Stratford. Pilot Officer Athol Gordon Mein tyre, injured in air operations. Father: Mr. J. Mclntyre, 450 Main Street Palmerston North. Pilot Officer Mclntyre was also injured on June 3. < ; Pilot Officer John Oscar Lloyd Stephenson, killed in aircraft accident. Mother: Mrs. G. H. Stephenson, Frankleigh Park, New Plymouth. Pilot Officer Stephenson was reported dangerously ill as the result of an accident last November. Squadron Leader Terence Gunion Lovell-Gregg, killed in air operations. Mother: Mrs. Lovell-Gregg, Picton, Marlborough.

Cabled advice that their son, Acting Leading Aircraftman Edward Culley, had been killed in a flying accident at Lee-on-Solent in England was received this week by Mr. and.-Mrs. E. Culley, Lower Hutt. Aircraftman Culley, who was 18 years of age. left for England, for service with the Fleet Air Arm on November 10. of last year. He was educated at Scots College and . Wellington College, and was particularly prominent in swimming and Rugby circles. He was a member of the Wellington''College first fifteen for two seasons. • * .

A Press Association message from Blenheim says ' that Squadron Leader Lovell-Gregg was the’ youngest son of Mrs. ami the late Dr. Lovell-Gregg, Pieton. He was 26 years of age, and nullified as a pilot nine years ago with the Marlborough Aero Club. Proceeding to England, he received a commission in rhe Royal Air Force. He was then the youngest pilot in either Australia or New Zealand, and was? promoted to flight lieutenant when 21. and to squadron leader at the end of. last year. Educated at Nelson College, where he had a brilliant scholastic career, he intended entering Otago University to study for the medical profession, but was held back because of his youth, and took up flying. in the. meantime. . '.r-:.L

Pilot Officer Parsons, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at th# end of last month, was born in Christchurch 27 years ago. and was educated at the .Christchurch Boys’ High School, gaining his matriculation and Canterbury College Bursary. He entered Canterbury College, to study law and commence, and took a prominent part in cricket and football activities. He joined the Canterbury Aero Club, gaining his “A’’ licence in 1932. He left for the United Kingdom in 1933. While serving with the R.A.F., he took a conspicuous part in service football activities, representing the R.A.F. during the 1938-39 season, and last year , representing England in the international match against Scotland on March 18. '