PROMISE KEPT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 242, 10 September 1940, Page 7

PROMISE KEPT.

PRESENTATION OF-COLOURS. FLYING-OFFICER KAIN’S FIANCEE. A twenty-years-old girl showed splendid calmness and Courage in front of R.A.F. officers, air cadets, and a crowd of thousands at Belle Vue Stadium, Manchester, on Saturday night, July 20, says the Daily Mail. She was Miss Joyce Phillips, of Mollington, Cheshire, fiancee of Britain’s first air “ace” of the war—the late Flying-Officer Kain, D.F.C.

Not long before he was killed on active service in June, Flying-Officer Kain promised to hand over colours to the 174th Squadron of the Manchester City Air Cadet Corps. After his death Miss Phillips agreed to take over the task, and the colours were dedicated to the memory of the dead hero It took courage for the girl—the only woman among the hundreds taking part in the ceremony—to watch the impressive spectacle, to listen to tributes to the man she loved, ia.nd to stand at attention on the saluting platform. “FOR VICTORY.” She heard Canon Paton Williams, hon. chaplain to the Manchester Air Defence Cadets, dedicating the colours : “May they ever fly for victory”—and she was presented in turn by AirCommodore R. 11. Dobson to the squadron leaders on parade. She then handed over the colours — the Union Jack and the new squadron colour—to the colour party, and with Air-Commodore Dobson took the salute at the march past. , Watching the spectacle from the grandstand were Mrs Kain, mother of the dead officer, and her daughter, Miss Judy Kain, who had come to England from New Zealand.

About 450 cadets, young men between 15 and 18 who are undergoing trail! itig in ground work, took’ part, and many R.A.F. officers stationed in and around Manchester were present.