Jack Henry BUDD

Serial Number: NZ4216028
RAF Trade: Aircrafthand (AD), then Pilot
Date of Enlistment: 6th of December 1942, at RNZAF Waipapakauri
Date of Demob: 20th of December 1945 (To Reserve of Officers)
Rank Achieved: Flying Officer
Flying Hours: ? hours
Operational Sorties: ? Ops (if any)

Date of Birth: 9th of September 1923
Personal Details:

Service Details: Jack enlisted at the northern RNZAF Station Waipapakauri as an Aircrafthand (AD), and he was most probably a member of No. 8 (General Reconnaissance) Squadron which patrolled the northern approaches with Vickers Vincents and Vildebeests of there.

Jack remustered to Pilot (under training) and embarked on the ship Santa Monica on the 11th of November 1943. He trained as a pilot at No. 3 Service Flying Training School at Calgary. He was commissioned as a pilot on the 18th of March 1945, and graduated on the 5th of May 1945 

Date of Death: 30th of September 2009, aged 86

Connection with Cambridge: Jack Budd was reportedly a resident of Cambridge before his RNZAF service. This man was a bit of an enigma. I discovered an article in The New Zealand Observer magazine, dated the 15th of December 1943 mentioning a T. Budd from Cambridge leaving for training in Canada. The report mentioned he had been given a farewell in Cambridge during the previous few weeks, and that this ex-bank teller of the Bank of New South Wales in Cambridge was going off to train in Canada. So he was almost certainly aircrew, possibly a pilot.

I consulted Ivan Lindsey of Tauranga who is working on a project concerning all men of the RNZAF who trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He found details of a J. Budd who I can only assume is one in the same. The dates match up.

Further details from Errol Martyn have led me to believe that Jack Henry Budd was most probably our airman who'd previously worked in the Cambridge bank. The initial 'T' in the NZ Observer may have been a typing error or he had a nickname beginning with that letter.

Thanks To: Ivan Lindsey and Errol Martyn for supplying some of the information on this page

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