N.Z. AIRMAN MISSING

Southland Times, Issue 24230, 13 September 1940, Page 6

N.Z. AIRMAN MISSING

Pilot Officer Robert Gladstone Hall, of Wellington, who was reported missing as the result of air operations, is a member of the Maranui Surf and Lifesaving Club and was a member of the team which won the junior six-man rescue and resuscitation championships of New Zealand, the. Wellington Province, and the West Coast (North Island) in the 1938-39 season. As a member of the University Swimming Club he was first home in the Peck Shield harbour race in February 1939. He is a member of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Rugby Football Club. Sergeant James Bracegirdle, of Auckland, who was reported missing, is not yet 22 years of age, but enlisted two weeks after the outbreak of war. He was sent to Levin for preliminary training in the Air Force and then received his gunnery training at Ohakea. He left for England last March. Educated at the Parnell School and at the Seddon Memorial Technical College, Sergeant Bracegirdle was for a time engaged in the motor industry as a mechanic, but later entered the railway service as a fireman. He played League football for the Parnell team and was well known as an amateur wrestler. Two of Sergeant Bracegirdle’s brothers are also serving with the forces. His elder brother, Captain Owen Bracegirdle, is with the Army Service Corps with the first echelon in Egypt, and Corporal Jack Bracegirdle went overseas with the second echelon as a member of the Anti-Tank Corps Their father, Mr Arthur Bracegirdle, served with the Imperial South Lancashire Regiment in the South African War and was in minesweepers and vessels of the contraband control during the war of 1914-18.

MEMBER OF MAORI BATTALION KILLED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 12. The following casualties are officially announced: — Private Tokena Pokai, 28th Maori Battalion, killed as a result of a motor accident on September 5. His sister is Miss Tipi Pokai, of Tikitiki, Ruatoria. It is officially announced that Pilot Officer Charles de Vic Halkett is missing as a result of air operations. His mother is Mrs A. J. Canning, 24 Stafford street, Wellington.