AIRMAN’S DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1943, Page 2

AIRMAN’S DEATH

SERGEANT PILOT LESLIE MAUNSELL. Sergeant Pilot Leslie C. Maunsell, whose death has been officially presumed was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs L. B. Maunsell, of Masterton. He was born in London in 1919 and was ' educated at Heneworth Preparatory School, Havelock North and at Wanganui College. After leaving college he took up farming, in which he v/as a keen enthusiast, for three years. He took a full part in sports activities and played golf and tennis. After the outbreak of war he was so keen to join the Air Force that he underwent an operation before he could be accepted as a trainee. After some months’ training in Canada he was offered a position as instructor, but he was so keen to fly over Berlin that he refused the post and went across to England to join a bomber squadron. Although the circumstances of Sergeant Pilot Maunsell’s death are not known, in a letter to his parents prior to his death he expressed satisfaction that he had achieved his ambition in helping to give the Germans back some of their own medicine.

The sympathy of a wide circle of friends in New Zealand and in England has been expressed by cable and letter to Mr and Mrs Maunsell and family in their bereavement. Of a cheerful disposition Sergeant Pilot Maunsell earned the respect of a host of friends.