Graham Ree MAGILL
CBE, DFC and Bar, M.I.D.

Serial Number:
RNZAF Trade: Pilot
Date of Enlistment: 31st of August 1936 ( RAF)
Rank Achieved: Air Vice Marshall
Flying Hours:
Operational Sorties:

Date of Birth: 23rd of January 1915, at Cambridge
Personal Details: Graham was the son of Mr and Mrs R.W. Magill who owned a drapery business in Cambridge before the war, before shifting to Te Aroha,

Graham attended Hamilton Technical High School. He became an electrical engineer after leaving school, and he learned to fly at the Waikato Aero Club, Rukuhia, before departing for England in May 1936, where he obtained a short service commission in the Royal Air Force.

Service Details: By 1940 Graham was flying the unusual geodetic structure Vickers Wellesley bombers from Khartoum, Sudan, with No. 47 Squadron RAF. At this time Italy entered the war, and Graham was to fly many missions against enemy targets in Eritrea and Abyssinia. he was awarded the DFC for his service during this period.

Next came a period as a staff officer and working in army liaison between the RAF and the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt and Libya, before he was then posted to No. 226 Squadron, flying Douglas Bostons from England.

In 1943 he took command of No. 180 Squadron, flying North American B-25 Mitchells. Graham was awarded a bar to his DFC for his service in these two day bomber squadrons.

He was then moved onto Operations Staff, No 2 Group from 1943-45. At the end of the war, Graham commanded No. 14 Squadron in Germany.

Graham was also Mentioned in Despatches, and at the time he received his bar to the DFC, he had been given command of a new RAF station in England .

After the war Graham stayed on in the RAF, and from 1949-52 he was on the staff of HQ, Middle East in Egypt. From 1953-1955 he commanded the Ferry Control Wing at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. This was followed by an appointment to HQ Allied Air Forces Europe, Fountainbleau.

He then commanded RAF Upwood in Huntingdonshire, before becoming Director of Operations (Bomber and Reconnaissance) at the Air Ministry in 1959.

Next he was Commandant of the Royal Air Force College of Air Warfare ay manby in Lincolnshire.

Graham took up a new appointment to the position of Director-General of Organisation (RAF) at the Ministry of Defence on the 20th of July 1964.