COURAGE IN THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 291, 7 September 1942, Page 4

COURAGE IN THE AIR

Awards To New Zealanders

Official advice of awards of the Distinguished flying Medal to two New Zealand air gunners, Sergeants Alexander Raymond Brown and John Aston Wilkinson, has been received by Air Headquarters, Wellington. Both airmen were based at Malta when the awards were made.

•Sergeants Wilkinson and Brown, states the citation, were members of the crews of. aircraft operating from Malta during June and July of this year. During this period their aireratt were engaged in harassing enemy sUipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Both airmen performed excellent work in attacking both enemy merchant vessels anil naval forces. In all these operations, Sergeants Wilkinson and Brown displayed outstanding initiative, courage and devotion to duty of the highest order. Sergeant Wilkinson was 'born ill Gisborne in November, 1010, and received his education at the Hastings Street School, Napier, the Kaiti School, Gisborne, and the Education Department’s Correspondence School. He applied for service with the R.N.Z.A.F. shortly after the outbreak of war and began training in .1940, having immediately before this been in the employ of Messrs. Thompson and Hills, Ltd., Auckland. His mother is Mrs. M. R. Wilkinson, 148 Ponsonby Road, Auckland.

Born in Tiniaru in September, 1915, Sergeant Brown was educated at Fait view School, Tiniaru, and the Timaru Technical School. In civil life a member of the New Zealand Railways Department staff, he applied for service in the Air Force in the early months of 1940, and began bis training in April of that year. His mother is Mrs. M. A. Brown, Fairview, Timaru.