Leading Aircraftman Hector Alexander Gordon McGregor

 The World War Two Memorial found in St Martin's on the Close

Leading Aircraftsman Hector Alexander Gordon McGregor was one of seven crew and eight passengers who took off from the plane's Fiji base in Lauthala Baji, Viti Levu, aboard a Catalina flying boat. The Catalina was famed for its ability to fly long distances and was ideal as a spotter plane.Its conversion to an amphibian gave it the ability to operate from land or sea bases. They departed Fiji at 3.40am on the 5th June 1943 on a ferry flight to Auckland, however it failed to arrive with no communication suggesting diffculty or an emergency being received. Three dyas later a boat found some wreakage of the plane washed up on Dravuni Island located on the north east side of the Kadavu group, 35 miles south of Lauthala Bay. No trace of the seven crew or eight passengers was found.  All save a civilian, MJ Scott of the Department of agriculture, were killed. The limited amount of wreakage recovered proved insufficient for investigators to draw any conclusions as to what might have led to the planes loss.  Hector McGregor was 30 years of age when he was killed and his name is not on a gravestone but on an Air Force Memorial in Auckland NZ and here in St Martin's on the Close.