AIR FORCE TRAGEDY
YOUNG WAIROA MAN PILOT - SERGEANT STEED (Special to tlio Herald.) WAIROA, this day. Cable advice has been received of the death following the crash of an R.A.F. bomber in Alexandria, Egypt, of -Pilot-Sergeant Leonard Steed, second son of. Mrs. A. G. Gunnell, Frasertown. This is the second former Wairoa boy who has met -his death while serving in the Royal Air Force. Pilot-Sergeant Steed left New Zealand four years ago for England and joined the Royal Air Force. After preliminary training he was drafted to Egypt and later was stationed! with his squadron at Basra, at the head of the Persian Gulf, where he had been for nearly two years. It was the intention of - Pilot-Sergeant Steed at the completion of his -term of service to return to the Dominion and -he had) .made application to the authorities t 6 pilot one of the bombers being sent to New Zealand.
Pilot-Sergeant Steed was 27 years of age at the time of his death, and his passing will 'be widely regretted. l He was born in Frasertown and received his education at the local school and -subsequently at the Napier Boys’ High School. While irt Wairoa he was an enthusiastic memoer of the Old Boys’ Football Club. He was the second resident from Frasertown who had lost his life in :he Royal Air Force, the other being Mr. Hugh Lynn IMoPhee, a personal friend of Pilot-Sergeant Steed. Mr. McPhee was killed on March 18, 1939, in an aeroplane crash in Scotland, where he was last stationed as a member of the Royal Air Force. He was the son of the late Mr. and 1 Mrs. Dugald McPhee, who resided for a number of years in Frasertown, Mr. Dugald McPhee being licensee of the Frasertown Hotel,
A sad feature of the tragedy which has just been reported from Alexandria is that Mr. Steed was engaged to be married to an English girl. Besides his mother, Mr. Steed leaves two sisters and a brother— Mrs. D. E. Braithwaite, Invercargill, Mrs. N. ,T. Menzies, Frasertown, and Mr. A. J. Steed, Wellington.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19390812.2.29
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20014, 12 August 1939, Page 4
Word Count
350AIR FORCE TRAGEDY Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20014, 12 August 1939, Page 4
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