ARMY LEADERS CHOSEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 25, 15 December 1939, Page 3

ARMY LEADERS CHOSEN

(By 23/762)

HE following are some of the senior ofticers of the New Zealand Permanent Staff who have been selected for service with the Second New Zealand Division to go overseas. Their positions and commands will be gazetted later. No doubt General Freyberg’s personal staff officers and the Headquarters Staff will be selected from among them. OLONEL EDWARD PUTTICK, D.S.O., fought with the New Zealand Rifie Brigade through the last war from its inception’ to the signing of the Armistice, and was one of the Brigade’s most forceful personalities, as many under his command will remember. I have a personal reason for doing so because he "crimed" me in the early days of my military career at Trentham by giving me three days C.B. (confined to barracks). But then I richly deserved it. Colonel Puttick was born at Timaru and was educated at the Waitaki Boys’ High School. He was keenly interested in the volunteer movement, and on the outbreak of war went to Samoa with the rank of captain. Later, when the New Zealand Rifle Brigade was formed he sailed as officer commanding " B" Company, lst Battalion. After a period as staff officer to the 2nd Brigade, he returned to the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and commanded various battalions until the end of the war, at one time commanding the whole brigade. Since then Colonel Puttick has held various posts with the New Zealand Staff Corps, and at present is in command of the Central Military District. He is married and has one daughter. LONEL REGINALD MILES, D.S.O., M.C., was among the first New Zealand cadets to go to Duntroon "Military College (1911 to 1914), and passed out top with a No. 1 certificate. During the last war he served with the New Zealand Field Artillery and commanded a battery in Egypt in 1916. During the last three months of the war he was Brigade-Major of the Divisional Artillery. Colonel Miles gained his Military Cross on the Somme in 1916 and his D.S.O. in 1918 for distinguished work in checking the enemy forces when the Germans broke through on the Lys. Colonel Miles, who is at present second member of the Military Board, attended

a course at Camberley Staff College in 1924-25. He was born at Springston, in Canterbury, the son of a farmer, and was educated at the Rangiora Boys’, High School before going on to Duntroon. He has a son and four daughters. IEUT.-COLONEL K. L.. STEWART, O.B.E., served in the last war with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles in Palestine’ and Egypt where, for a time, he was A.D.C. to General Chaytor. Colonel Stewart is a graduate of Duntroon, the Royal Military College of Australia, and he has also attended the staff college at Camberley, in England. He knows intimately the territory along the BelgianGerman border, for he studied it as part of his tactical duties while at Camberley, spending some time in Belgium and drawing up schemes. for defence against an invading army. For four years Colonel Stewart was staff officer in Ceylon, and his ability was such that the defence authorities there requested that he be retained on their staff. Colonel Stewart was educated at Wanganui College. He is a married man, with two children. [| JEUT.-COLONEL Ss. H. CRUMP served with the New Zealand Army Service Corps of the Division throughout the last war, and _ is thoroughly acquainted with the latest developments in supply and transport. From 1916 to 1918 he was Supply Officer to the Mounted Brigade in Egypt and later he became Senior Supply Officer to the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Brigade. Colonel Crump was a territorial officer before the last war, and became a member of the Permanent Staff on his return to New Zealand. LJEUT.-COLONEL W. G. STEVENS has been attached to the Prime Minister’s Department for the last two years in the organisation for national security. He went to London recently with the Acting Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser, as part of the New Zealand delegation. Colonel Stevens was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and later went to Duntroon, from which he graduated in 1914. He served through

the last war and for a time was Staff Captain to the New Zealand Divisional Artillery. In 1926-27 he attended a course at Camberley Staff College in England and followed that by a course with the Imperial Defence College. Colonel Stevens is a great reader and a lover of music. He has three sons, one of them serving at present with the 2nd New Zealand Division. MaA4JoR C. J. S. DUFF is at present in England, where he had joined > the Anti-tank Corps on the outbreak of war. He is a graduate of Duntroon and has been attached to the artillery unit | in New Zealand. After attending a Gun-| nery Staff course in England he went | on to the staff college at Quetta, in India. Later he returned to England to take a course at Minley Manor, the new British Military College. is one MAJOR W. G. GENTRY of the younger men of the service, and did not graduate from Duntroon Military College until after the war. He went to India to complete his training, and saw service on the North-West | Frontier. Later he was sent to England to take a course at the Staff College at Camberley. MAJOR D. T. MAXWELL other graduate of Duntroon Military College, graduating after the last war. He has also taken a course at the is an--Camberley Military Coilege in Eng-. land. M4JoOR A. W. GREVILLE is a graduate of Duntroon Military College in Australia. From Australia he went to India for further training. In his younger days he was an Auckland representative footballer. MAJOR GEORGE CLIFTON, M.C., is at present in charge of the Military Training School at Narrow Neck, Auckland. Major Clifton is a graduate of the Australian Military College of Duntroon, and later he took a course at the Military College at Camberley. After leaving Duntroon Major | | Clifton saw service on the North-West Frontier of India, where he gained the Military Cross in action. ; | '