BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 14, 2 August 1940, Page 6

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Sir John Duigan Major-General Sir John Duigan has been in command of the military forces in New Zealand since 1937. In March that year he was appointed General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces, a title subsequently changed in October , the same year, on the reorganization of the defence system, to Chief of the General Staff. A New Zealander, born in 1883, he has been 40 years , a soldier. His distinguished military career includes experience of almost every sphere of army work. He first saw . active service in South Africa serving two years with the Second. Brabants Horse, and the Second Kitcheners Scouts. For three months he held a. commission in the Tenth New Zealand Contingent. He returned- to New Zealand after the war, and joined the . Permanent Forces as a cadet in 1903. In September icon’ e received his commission, and in IuOJ was promoted to captain. He was then instructor for signalling and engineer <l tui IJI2. Afterward he was ap-

pointed General Staff Officer and from Tune 1915, by which time he had attained the rank of major, till November, he was General Staff Officer of the Ancle

land Military District. . In December, 1915, he was appointed to command the New Zealand Tunnelling Corps, with which he served -till early in 1917. After being attached for a short time to the divisional headquarters of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was transferred -to" headquarters of the

Sixth- Army Corps of the British Armies in France. At the latter end of 1917 he acted as General Staff Officer for the New- Zealand Infantry Reserve Brigade. Subsequently he was appointed instructor at the Senior Officers’ School, Aldershot. . The British War Office then sent Major Duigan to the United States, to carry out important • propaganda -work in connexion with the Liberty Loan. Toward the emgof the war he. was.appointed temporary lieutenant-colonel,, and on his return to New Zealand he was made chief ; infantry . instructor at Featherston camp. For the first seven months of 1919 he was again General Staff Officer for the Auckland district, and was confirmed in his temporary ranking. In August he became chief staff officer of the Northern Command, and in the ten years that followed he made an outstanding reputation for his energy and administrative ability. His specialty of military

engineering was of importance in view of "the growing mechanization- of army methods. He had been awarded .the D.S.O. in 1919, his work in the field having also won mention in dispatches. b•In 1930, on the retirement of Colonel H. R. Potter, Colonel Duigan was appointed Officer Commanding the Northern Command. In 1936 he" was named aide. de camp to the King, in succession to Colonel F. . Symon. On the retirement of 'Sir William Sinclair-Burgess in March, .1937, Colonel Duigan was appointed his successor as General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces, . with the rank of major-general, which position he has held'since. His term of office has twice been extended- by the Government, in recognition of the value of his services.

Colonel Mead.

Colonel O. H. Mead, C.8.E., was born in Blenheim in 1892, and educated at Marlborough College. He served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the

lieutenantV risi “ S - from - the rftnk of liter r V° major 111 March , 1917, anti later lieutenant-colonel. ' He held the Battalio L 0 J h H F 1^ t ’ Second and Third tiU*hi« rM the Canterbury Regiment b 1 t °, New Zealand in govern- ’ ' • n the same year he became

\ .1 a captain in the New 7 0o i I ** He was at the Staff Cogfor two years, and iwi tai War Office, London, in » el quently held the position S M dl ” Quartermaster-General \-M eill ' Military Forces, an % L the Army Board- at ArKM Wellington. In November appointed officer comm-in,■ M ern Military. District, Aufe Mki year he became Adjutant p l ' A ' Army Headquart,«

Group Captain Isitt I vi Group Captain L. M j- j. served with the New zJ’l Brigade and with the Royal SS during the Great War. He \ a Jf ' Ito the New Zealand. Staff Cor , ■ duties in November, 1919, and A to the Royal New Zealand Ji ? its formation in 1923. ForsoX"

was officer commanding the HL* Air Base, Auckland, but in Ap:J he was transferred to Air Head Wellington, ■where he became if member for personnel. He was;! Group Captain in .July, 1938.1 recently appointed the re/wnil the New Zealand GovevWx • supervising board —up the Empire air training sch Canada. J

' I It Squadron Leader Ramislft Leader I. E. 1? M.8.E., was appointed chief ins. 0 , 1 the Wellington Aero Club in Ajl and before that was instruct! 0 Hawke’s Bay Aero Club, toil he was appointed in Septeitl! He is a Wellingtonian, and wait at Wellington College and Viftj versify College. He . has serve®

- 1 New Zealand Territorial Air M its inception. He has also p mission in the Royal Air F 'J! service in England and W B his air experience, extea years, he has flown so “y.?> types of twin and single flu and has won a number 1 & pageant and air competit loß

j bi Wing Comm«" B'" 1

Wing ■ Commander BuiJ’ » served in the air th OJI war and was in Cana a mission .'for the Air ", t 0 h Armistice. He re t u ten' j f , Force in New Zeal• tor at X serving as. fly]?- rcra ft'a^ ; ;fe diief inspector of jL t of (~bT ind 'later superintended . •

, :he<l to headquarters. He was promiitly associated with aerial relief duties .ring the -Murchison and Hawke's Bay j, quakes. mJ . '■ Rev. G. Robson. 1( A former student of St. John's College, Auckland, the Rev. . George Robson was 'Wained in 1911. He left as chaplain Ti the Expeditionary Force in 1917, \ >r being awarded the Military Cross. * >m 1923 to .1927, when he was appoint'ai|. to his naval chaplaincy post, he was Pll tar of Te Awamutu. ■. M '*'et ji;' tb t f r V > Commissioned Gunner ’.Harvey', , •liCommissioned Gunner Harvey has been MSlj' of those responsible for the efficient Zealaif-nery■ training of men of the New •23. land Division of the Royal Navy, ‘served in the last war and. was proed to commissioned gunner ,in 1928.