Margaret Matilda CORNWALL
(later Margaret Soanes)

Service Number: WAL 2867
RNZAF Trade: Transport Driver
Date of Enlistment: October 1942
Date of Demob: Sometime around 1947
Rank Achieved: W.A.L.
Flying Hours: Nil
Operational Sorties: Nil

Date of Birth: 24th of October 1921
Personal Details: Margaret was the daughter of Mrs and the late James D.M. Cornwall of Pukekura, Cambridge. She is the sister of 'Peter' Cornwall, who was also in the RNZAF and is detailed on this website too

Service Details: On joining the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Margaret was posted straight to RNZAF Station Hobsonville. She trained to become a Transport Driver, and was soon posted down to RNZAF Hamilton Central, where she served as a driver for almost three years. Whilst there she worked with Sergeant Ernie Gorringe,who later moved to Cambridge, and Gwenda Reid who was also from Cambridge.

In mid-1945 she was shifted just out of Hamilton to RNZAF Station Rukuhia, and it was whilst she was based there that the war ended. Margaret decided to stay in the WAAF however, and was soon posted down to RNZAF Weedons, a satellite stores base to Wigram in Christchurch. She remained there for around a further two years, and then went up to RNZAF Station Whenuapai for a very short time until deciding to leave the WAAF, which was sometime around 1947.

Died: 25th of June 2006, at Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, aged 84

Connection with Cambridge: Margaret was born and bred in the Cambridge district

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