A matter of life and death

John Glen McCauley attended New Plymouth Boys’ High School from 1928-1930.

He was a champion boxer and was very well known locally as the cornetist in the school’s orchestra. He worked for the Taranaki Daily News for some years, and then shifted to Wellington, working for a firm there.

He went to England towards the end of the 1930s and while there married Miss Joan Harvey, from New Plymouth, in 1938.

He and his wife toured the Continent and left Germany just a fortnight before World War II broke out.

He enlisted in England with the airforce and was trained there. Pilot Officer John Mccauley was killed in an aircraft accident over the Bay of Biscay area while flying to North Africa.

Yet another tragic end to a young lad with a bright future ahead of him.