On this day in 1941, Bro Alexander George Herbert of Lodge Tawhiri No. 166 was killed on operations while serving with the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
He was 23 years old.
Alexander George Herbert was born at Frankton Junction on 4 June 1918, the son of Frank and Eva Emma Herbert. His connection with Tawhiri was particularly close. His father, W Bro Frank Herbert, was a long-standing member of the Lodge, served as Master in 1934–35 and was the founder of Herbert's Bakery.
Alex attended Hamilton Technical College and was active in rugby, athletics, rowing and basketball. Before the war he worked in the family business.
Herbert enlisted in the RNZAF at Levin on 2 July 1940 and trained as a pilot. After gaining his flying badge and commission, he left New Zealand for Britain and was eventually posted to No. 139 Squadron RAF, flying Bristol Blenheim bombers.
On 12 August 1941, Herbert took off from RAF Oulton as pilot of Bristol Blenheim V6261. His aircraft was one of 54 Blenheims sent on a low-level daylight attack against power stations at Knapsack and Quadrath in Germany.
The operation was costly. Herbert's aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft fire over the target and was later attacked by enemy fighters on the return journey. It came down near the mouth of the Western Scheldt. Herbert and Sgt George Benton were killed. The third member of the crew, Pilot Officer Courtney George, was never recovered. It was Herbert's fifth operational sortie.
Herbert was buried at Bergen General Cemetery in the Netherlands, Plot 1, Row E, Grave 24. His service number was 401763.
His loss was remembered particularly closely at Tawhiri. The Lodge's records note that W Bro Frank Herbert later presented furniture in memory of his son, including a chair bearing the memory of Bro A Herbert.
Beside it was the memorial to Bro Leslie Wright, Alex's close friend and fellow Tawhiri member, who had been killed during RNZAF flying training the previous year. The Lodge's furniture history records that the closeness of the chairs in the lodge room symbolised the friendship the two young men had shared before they lost their lives in the Air Force.
More than eighty years later, Alexander Herbert remains one of two Tawhiri brethren known to have lost their lives while serving with the RNZAF during the Second World War.
On 12 August, we remember our Brother.
Bro Alexander George Herbert
RNZAF 401763
Flight Lieutenant, No. 139 Squadron RAF
Killed on operations, 12 August 1941, aged 23
Lest we forget.