REPORTED PROMOTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1940, Page 7

REPORTED PROMOTION

AIR COMMODORE MAYNARD. MYSTIFICATION IN AUCKLAND. (By Telegraph—Press Asociation.) AUCKLAND, January 4. A brief cablegram published in New Zealand papers on Tuesday last an- i nouncing the promotion of Group Captain F. H. Maynard, of Waiuku, Auckland, to the rank of Air Commodore, j has given rise to mystery. ; The rank being so high—equivalent t to the Army’s brigadier-general and . the Navy’s commodore —inquiries were t immediately made in Waiuku by a re- j porter but neither officials nor citi- ( zens had heard of Group-Captain Maynard or of a Maynard family. Inquiries made in Wellington were without result. Air Force headquarters had never heard of Air Commodore Maynard. The question still being asked is. who is this distinguished New Zea- t lander? r FACTS CLEARED UP. BRIEF STAY IN NEW ZEALAND. AUCKLAND. This Day. The seeming mystery surrounding the identity at the recently promoted Air Commodore Maynard, stated in a e cablegram to belong to Waiuku, New Zealand has been solved. Air-Commo-dore was born at the Vicarage, Waiuku, near Auckland, in May, 1893. His f father was from England and was f Vicar of Waiuku. v A friend of the family, residing in f Waiuku. states that the family was in E New Zealand for about three years, f and left, when the son was about two r years old. During the Great War AirCommodore Maynard was a FlightLieutenant in the Air Force, and piloted one -of the escort planes which accompanied the Prince of Wales to France. He was later attached to Lord Allenby’s staff in Egypt. When the last news of him reached New Zealand. in 1923. he was married and had B one son.