Taranaki journos among war dead
Four Taranaki journalists who died in WWII are among the 226 men who will soon have their names added to the New Plymouth Boys’ High School’s memorial gates.
The list of former students who died gives a snapshot of the war’s toll on the Taranaki community, NZ Remembrance Army founder, military historian and former army major Simon Strombom said.
The $35,000 Valour Project will see four new bronze plaques with the names of the WWII fallen added to the gates on Coronation Ave, beside those killed in WWI. An unveiling ceremony is planned for Anzac Weekend 2023.
The project is a joint effort between the school, its old boys’ association and the NZ Remembrance Army.
Many of the men listed had links to businesses and sporting clubs in Taranaki that still exist today, Strombom said.
Three of the reporters worked for the Taranaki Daily News and one for the Taranaki Herald.
Squadron Leader John Crayley Blundell attended New Plymouth Boys’ High from 1926 to 1935, when it had a prep school, and then worked for the Taranaki Herald.
He had plans to become a war correspondent, but enlisted with the Royal New Zealand Air Force when war broke out.
Before the war, Blundell had flown at the aero club at Bell Block, and after enlisting he trained at Ohakea and was posted to the Pacific. He joined 14 Squadron and flew operations, rising to squadron leader. On June 13, 1944, Blundell, flying a Corsair, failed to return after a raid attacking Rabul. No one saw what happened to his aircraft.
He was highly respected by his squadron and was survived by his wife and young daughter.
Flight Sergeant Evan Bertham Davies was born in New Plymouth and spent five years at New Plymouth Boys’ High before starting work on the Taranaki Daily News.
After two years as a cadet reporter he enlisted in the RNZAF.
Evan began his training in 1942 and was posted to England in 1943.
Before he left New Zealand he learnt that his brother, Wynn Davies, had been lost over Germany. Wynn had also been a pupil at Boys’ High.
Evan was later transferred to the Middle East where he flew as a pilot and captain of many Wellington bomber aircraft flights over Europe.
He was killed in action during a raid over Austria on August 20, 1944. His body was recovered from the wreckage, and he was buried at Klagenfurt. He was 23.
A plane crash ended Pilot Officer John Mostyn Brightwell’s life.
Brightwell attended the school from 1935 to 1938 and served in the 11th Taranaki Regiment before the war and worked as a journalist for the Taranaki Daily News.
He applied for the air force and trained in New Zealand and then went to Canada.
He arrived in the UK in 1944 and joined 489 Squadron, flying Beaufighters of Coastal Command over the North Sea and Norway.
In 1944, word came that German ships had been sighted in Jossingfjord, and Brightwell’s squadron was assigned to engage them. His plane attacked first and reported the ships’ locations. Sadly, it collided with another aircraft, also being flown by New Zealanders, killing four of them. Brightwell was 23 years old.
Pilot Officer John Dorest Webster, RNZAF, 25, was lost without trace while returning from a mission over France on July 23, 1942.
Webster was just 15 when he left New Plymouth Boys’ High School in 1934 and went to work at the Taranaki Daily News in Hāwera, later moving on to the Farmer’s Co-op Society.
In 1940, he enlisted in the RNZAF and received training in Levin and Bell Block, where an elementary flying training school had been set up, before being transferred to Canada for further training.
After more training in Scotland, he was graded above average as a fighter pilot and posted to 234 Fighter Squadron in Ibsley to fly Spitfires.
But on July 23, 1942, he never returned from a mission over France, and it was assumed his aircraft had been brought down and lost at sea.
His name is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, England.
Apart from their shared work, all four of the men would have known each other from their school days, Strombom said.