NINE EX-FARMERS
IN NEW ZEALAND SPITFIRE . SQUADRON. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, January 23. The Fighter Command’s leading New Zealand Spitfire squardon has nine exfarmer pilots. The leader is Squadron Leader R. J. C. Grant, who has destroyed seven enemy planes, besides probably destroyed and damaged planes. The squardon includes only one nonNew Zealander, an Australian. One ex-' farmer, a sergeant, from Waikaka Valley L. S. McQueen White, claims the world’s record for sheep shearing, having shorn 432 sheep in eight and a half hours. Not all the nine farmers came from the land to join the R.A.F. Some had already forsaken agriculture. One became an electrical engineer at a gold mine, another was a gold miner, a farmer, a teacher and a commercial artist, and was preparing for his bachelor of arts degree when the war interrupted his studies. After joining the R.A.F. he served in Rhodesia, where he won the Rhodesian Midlands lightweight boxing title. Two sheep farmers are from Hawke’s Bay, others are from the Canterbury Planes. The squadron has destroyed 32 planes The average age of the squadron's personel is 24.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19430125.2.28
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 January 1943, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
185NINE EX-FARMERS Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 January 1943, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Times-Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in