AWARDS FOR BRAVERY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 30, 30 October 1942, Page 4

AWARDS FOR BRAVERY

Secret Desert Operations MEMBERS OF LONG RANGE GROUP The following awards for gallantry in secret desert operations have been made to personnel of the N.Z.E.F., all four being members of the Long Range Desert Group:— D.S.O. Lieutenant (temporary Captain) N. P. Wilder. Next-of-kin. Mr. R, P. Wilder (father), Wallingford, Waipukurau. M.M. Corporal M. Craw. Next-of-kin, Mrs. E. B. Craw (wife), 3M Ferguson Street, Palmerston North. Trooper T. B. Dobson. Next-of-kin, Miss L. Dobson (sister), c/o Mr. N. Forbes, Grady Street, Blenheim. Corporal K. E. Tippett. Next-of-kin, Mrs. P. L. Tippett (wife), c/o Mrs. H. Blackburn. Mahoe Street, Te Awamutu.

Captain Wilder went overseas in April, 1940, with the Second Echelon, aud was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in Egypt a year later. He was wounded in September of this year, and discharged from hospital about three weeks ago. Captain Wilder was engaged in fanning in civil life, and is a member of a well-known Hawke's Bay family. Corporal Craw sailed for the Middle East with the Fourth Reinforcements in December, 1940. He was promoted to the rank of corporal this year. Before the war he was engaged in- farming. Trooper Dobson went overseas as a member of the First Echelon in January, 1940. He was posted missing in November, 1941. at Bardia, and was released, together with a number of other New Zealand troops, when our forces captured Bardia in January of this year. Farm work was his civil occupation. He was wounded in the Western Desert in September of this year. Corporal Tippett also left New Zealand with the First Echelon. His civilian occupation was car painter.