Person:John McConnell (41)

John was previously married. It is thought that his marriage may have been in 1932 to a Catherine Clarke Cooper.

The following was in an unknown paper with an unknown date: Long Career Fighting Fires. Directing the rescue of a planeload of Japanese repatriates at Whenuapai in 1943 earned the MBE for Station Officer J E K McConnell the Auckland fire prevention officer who retires today. Except for the war years, Mr Mc Connell served 31 years with the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board, the last two as head of the Fire Prevention branch. Before that he was watchroom controller for two years and Station Officer at Avondale for 12 years. Mr Mc Connell was seconded at Avondale to the Royal New Zealand Air force as firemaster at Whenuapai from 1940 to 1944. For secrrity reasons, the rescue operation for which he was decorated was not published. It occurred when a Liberator bomber carrying 31 Japanese men, women and children crashed and burned on Whenuapai foreshore. " We managed to get 17 out alive, " he recalled yesterday. Mr McConnell also attended the wreck of a Flying Fortress which crashed near the main highway at Massey with the loss of 13 lives. In all, he directed fire fighting work on 39 major aircraft accidents before he returned to the city brigade. In 1951 he topped the world in examinations conducted by the Institute of Fire Engineers. Mr McConnell will continue working for the board in a civilian administrative post.