Lost Trails

These photos were amongst a number of World War 2 photos/negatives given to Wendy Napier-Walker following her father’s death in 2010. Edward Trevor Napier, who was in the artillery, is on the left of the photo directly above. It was most probably taken in northern Italy in 1943-44. One of the men is thought to have come from Waimate. The top photos were taken at the Plotting Centre in Castelfrentano circa December 1943. Trevor Napier arrived in Egypt in June 1943 and was posted to 32 NZ Field Regiment. In September 1943 he was posted to Advance Base 36 Survey Battery, and in December 1944 was in the NZ Artillery Corps (5 NZ Field Regiment) in Italy. He left Egypt after the war in December 1945. Can anyone identify the others in the photos? Contact: Wendy Napier-Walker, 60 Tilby Drive, Matua, Tauranga 3110; steve.wendy.walker@xtra.co.nz.

Russell and Karla Stean are trying to renew contact with Ian McLeod, a Vietnam veteran from the New Zealand Army. He is the older brother of Andrew (Buck) and Ronald McLeod, and the uncle of Karla Adela Stean. Their last contact with him was in 2004, and his last known whereabouts was with the Hamilton RSA. Contact: Cpl Russell D Stean, RAInf, Campbell Barracks, Perth, Weteran Australia; russell.stean@defence.gov.au, or Karla Adela Stean (McLeod), karlastean@hotmail.com. au.

Recollections of Capt W.N.Wood, New Zealand Second Divisional Artillery, who died in Cairo. Also, any memories of Lt Oliver Gordon Wood, 11751, New Zealand Infantry, 32 Wellington Battalion, 2 NZEF, who died at El Alamein. W.N.Wood was Jocelyn Harris’s father and Oliver was her uncle. Contact: Jocelyn Harris, jocelyn.harris@otago. ac.nz; 28 City Rd, Dunedin 9010; 03 4777187; 021 02357089.

Anyone know anything of Bob Fowler, who lived in Riccarton, Christchurch, and flew with 487(NZ) Sqn of the Royal Air Force in World War 2? Contact: davidpalmer@clear.net.nz.
Barry Young is seeking information as he researches the military career of his father. Frederick Daniel Young. He served as a private, was in New Zealand’s first echelon to Egypt, and and was at Cassino, in Italy. He was born in Blackball (West Coast) in 1924 and died on January 21, 1991, aged 67. He is buried in the main cemetery at Mosgiel, in Otago. He worked mainly as a coalminer in Denniston and Westport, and as a sawmiller in Nelson, Amberley and Christchurch (Burwood and Chaney’s Corner). He married Pauline Grace Palmer, and they had four children – Colleen, Kevin, Patrick and Barry. When he was about six, Barry saw a film-clip of his father marching through ruins – he had his hat on back to front, and was out of step. Contact: Barry Young,129a Stafford St, Dunedin Central; 021 2653936;barryyoung2011@hotmail.com.

Richard Brodmann is looking for information to help locate families of New Zealand World War 2 veterans who trained at CFB Penhold (an air base) in Alberta Canada. His great-grandparents were known around Penhold and Red Deer (the nearest city) for taking these recruits into their home and trying to provide comforts such as home-cooked meals, dances etc. His grandfather also ran the bus service between the air base and Red Deer. Richard hopes to open communications and share stories with interested families of these airmen, perhaps even reconstruct timelines of what went on, and where they might have gone during that time. He would also like to: visit the graves of those buried here (usually training accidents) and send photos to families in New Zealand; visit places or people known to the New Zealand families try and fill in the details; re-connect with the families who regularly sent mail to his grandmother until the late ‘80s (the last these is thought to have been the Conoway family). Contact: Richard Brodmann, RuchardBrodmann@gmail.com.

487 (NZ) Sqn survivors or enthusiasts. David Palmer is keen to hear from you. Following the publication of his five-part series in Aviation News NZ on the squadron, he has been encouraged to continue his research into the unit’s history and activities. He’s not sure if the result will be a book, but “at least I can compile a history for donation to the Air Force Museum at Wigram, who bemoan the lack of material on 487”. Contact: davidpalmer@ clear.net.nz. Contact details or any other information sought on Col J H Wright, of 166 Okere Rd, Okere Falls, RD 4 Rotorua, and latterly with New Zealand Forestry. He and Esdaile Hudon are both retired officers of the British Army, but have lost touch. Contact: Esdaile Hudson esdaile.hudson@btinternet.com.

Did you play or know of World War 1 or World War 2 men who played rugby in the Canterbury area (that includes the present Canterbury, Mid- Canterbury and South Canterbury provincial unions)? Or do you have photographs or information on people who did? If so, you could be of help to the producers of a book on Canterbury rugby clubs. Contact: Mike Coker 021 778116; mike@rugbybook.co.nz.

Chris Davis is searching for details of his grandfather, Robert Laird Tate. Robert Tate left New Zealand on “active service” between July and December 1942. He went to the Pacific with the Third Division Ammunition Company – Ordnance; his service number was 300733. He was a driver in both civilian and army life. He listed his father, W A Tate, as his next of kin. Chris Davis’s mother last saw Robert Tate when she was five, and he would 91 now. His name was listed on the 1954 Nelson electoral roll. He is not on the RSA Last Post database, which goes back to June 2000, and New Zealand Defence Force archives have no record of his death. He has been on the Salvation Army missing persons list for some time. Contact: Chris Davis chrisathome@xtra.co.nz

Bev Yewen wants to locate an army family, surname McConney. The last contact with them was in Christchurch in 1999. Contact: Bev Yewen byewen@gmail.com. Ron King is trying to get in touch with Peter L Scott, an old friend and a Kiwi ex-serviceman. They worked together on an Alaskan barge years ago. Contact: Dave Brooker david.brooker@zintel. co.nz.

If you were part of the 2NZEF 9th Reinforcements NZASC in the Italian campaign 1943-45, Sally Chao would like to meet or hear from you. She is trying to track her stepfather’s route from Alexandria to Trieste. He was Geoffrey Oswald Wake, 83042, a NZASC driver. A member of the Waipukurau and Levin RSAs, he died on April 9, 1978 at Levin. She has been working through military sources and histories on the net, and has been matching personal photos with places. However, fewer than a dozen if her photos are named. Some, of a small group on leave, included an ‘Andrew Todd’, who she thinks was from Wellington. Contact: Sally Chao kiwisal@hotmail.com; Auckland.

If you’re a man, around 70 or more, like talking about yourself, and reckon you’re photogenic, you could be just the bloke Lynsey Gedye is looking for. Gedye – a photographer, artist, and documentarian – is recording some of the wisdom, advice, and stories our fathers shared. The documentary project will see the portrait photographs and stories combined to form an exhibition and book, Things My Father Told Me, about the middle of 2012. Participants will be invited to the exhibition, and receive one A4 portrait print suitable for framing and an unedited copy of the interview on CD/DVD, whether the works are in the exhibition or not. The photography is done in-studio at St Andrew’s on the Terrace, in central Wellington. Portraits are traditional bust (torso) shots (waist up). Sessions take about two hours for both video and photographs. Contact: Lynsey Gedye 027 2330918; lynsey.gedye@gmail.com;www. freshnewday.net.

New Zealand’s Vietnam veterans are being offered the opportunity to be part of a PhD research study. The aim is to determine if visits to Vietnam by war veterans after the war have helped in changing attitudes towards former foes and in providing ripe conditions for reconciliation. Participation is sought from those who have been back to Vietnam, and those who have not. Contact: Maria Dorsey 03 4703458; dorma072@student.otago.ac.nz.

Canterbury RNZRSA district vice-president Russ Barron has been travelling in France and Belgium, and has been stopping at a lot of small war cemeteries. He has taken photographs of some New Zealand war graves, and is happy to provide photos and details to relatives of: WO D L Burke 421671, pilot, Royal NZ Air Force, died July 15, 1944, aged 20; Flt Sgt R A Crawshaw 417270, navigator (bomber), Royal NZ Air Force, died August 16, 1943, aged 29; Flt Sgt J M Hart 424460, pilot, Royal NZ Air Force, died August 19, 1944, aged 28; Plt Off R B Hemmings 121712, pilot, Royal NZ Air Force, died August 8, 1944, aged 21; Flt Lt G M Kennedy 415328, pilot, Royal NZ Air Force, died June 7, 1944, aged 23.Contact: Russ Barron, 48 Coronation St, Christchurch; 021 334382; russ@fishcon.net

Denis Turner,Coldstreamer, would like to hear from Guardsman Jack Crossley M.M. Coldstreamer, who served in the Long Range Desert Group. Contact: Denis Turner, Unit 86, Metlifecare Highlands Village, 49 Aberfeldy Ave. Highland Park, Auckland; 09 5342123; pellon@xtra.co.nz.

Ex-service personnel – military, police, civilians, and particularly Maori and Pacific Islanders –- sought for PhD research. Need to be willing to be interviewed for a research study, Conceptualising effectiveness in peacekeeping operations: Exploring the perspectives and experiences of individual front-line personnel. The study aims to contribute to peacekeeping by adding the experiences of soldiers, police and civilians to the analysis of how peacekeeping works. Participants are being asked for their opinions and views about what worked, and how it worked, during their service in the field. Participants need to be at least 22 years old, and have served on overseas deployments in the last 10 years. Contact: Ellen Furnari, PhD candidate, peace and conflict studies,University of Otago, Dunedin; furnarie@ gmail.com.
 Any Aeradio D/F (direction finding) personnel attached to aerodromes in New Zealand 1944-45, please contact: David Little, 1 Baxter Place, Nelson 7011.

If you are interested in any of the horsemen on the front cover of Terry Kinloch’s book, Devils on Horses (RSA Review, spring 2011), Terry Clark can help you. He is the grandson of one of them, and his grandfather passed on all four names, the date and location of the photo. Contact: Terry Clark, 5 Sutton Ave, Clive, Hawke’s Bay; 027 5853458; terrycl@orcon.net.nz

Two medals – which were awarded to Maj N.J.Murray T774404 RNZAMC July ‘91-March ‘92 – have been found in the pocket of a jacket discarded on a rubbish tip. They are the NZGSM with the Iraq clasp, and the UN Medal. They can be reclaimed from the East Coast Bays RSA, 13 Bute Rd, Browns Bay, Auckland 0630; 09 4788033; ecbrsa@xtra.co.nz.

Peter Cooper is looking at starting a small museum in Christchurch focusing on the Korean, Malaysian and Vietnam wars. He feels today’s generation knows little about these conflicts and their “great importance in New Zealand history”. He is keen to hear from anyone interested in helping. Contact: Peter Cooper, 03 3828892; 0211801392; max_ output@hotmail.com.