PERSONAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1942, Page 2

PERSONAL

Miss R. Palmer, Longbush, has joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and has been posted to Levin. The engagement is announced of Rita Daphne (Meg), elder daughter of Mr and Mrs J. Stewart, of Masterton,and Thomas Henry, youngest son of Mr and Mrs V. Lerke, of Hamilton. The United States War Department has made a posthumous award of the Distinguished Service Medal to Briga-dier-General George, who lost his life in a recent aeroplane accident in Australia, a Washington cablegram reports. Dr. Helen Deem, Dunedin, medical adviser to the Plunket Society, has been awarded a grant of 2000 dollars by the Carnegie Corporation to enable her to further her studies in America. She has requested postponement of the grant till after the war. News that Leading Aircraftman M. U. Robinson has received his'commission in Canada, will be received with pleasure by his friends in the Manawatu district where he was engaged in farming prior to joining the Air Force. He is a Palmerston North High School old boy and a grandson of Mr W. Robinson, of Featherston.' The impact of the war on academic life was evident when degrees were conferred on graduants of Victoria Universtity College, Wellington, last night. Several of those receiving diplomas were in uniform, while more degrees than usual were conferred in absentia. The graduants included Alison Davie (Bachelor of Arts), Masterton. Miss Rosina Buckman, the New Zealand singer, who formerly resided in Masterton, and who has been in England for the past 25 years, has on three different occasions been dispossessed of her seaside homes in North Wales by the Government authorities, who required the properties for defence purposes. Her husband, Maurice d’Oisely, singer, teacher of vocalism, and an examiner for the' Royal Academy of Music, is now serving in the British Army. In her annual report, Miss M. A. Kummer, president of the local Women’s National Welfare League, states: “I should like to congratulate one and all on their excellent work and their kind consideration. Qur grateful thanks to all those who help us —Mr Jordan, Mr Pither, Mr Norman James (our hon. auditor), Mr Jenkins, Mr Shoosmith, the Press, and all those whose assistance and courtesy wc appreciate very much.”

Cable advice has been received of the death in London on April 27 of Mr E. V. Read, until recently deputy chairman of Dalgety and Co.. Ltd., at the age of 87. Mr Reid had been closely associated with the expansion of the activities of Dalgety and Co. in Australia and New Zealand for a great number of years. Early in 1905 he was appointed London manager and colonial superintendent for the company, and assumed the position of general manager in 1913. In 1926 he was appointed managing director.