An emotive Pacific War New Zealand Memorial Cross to Lieutenant John Christie Leslie

An emotive Pacific War New Zealand Memorial Cross to Lieutenant John Christie Leslie, aide-de-camp to Maj-Gen O. H. Mead, CBE, DSO, GOC Pacific Section, 2 NZEF, the silver cross named on the reverse [6866 LT. J. C. LESLIE], in case of issue. As issued. At six o'clock on the morning of 18th July operational command in Fiji passed to the Americans, commanded by Major General Robert S. Beightler. Mead remained in Suva to observe amphibious landing operations by United States navy, army, and air units on the beaches of Koro Island, which he had helped to select for this first and only rehearsal of the landing on Guadalcanal. He and Leslie then left on the morning of 25 July to pay a farewell visit to Tonga, but their Hudson aircraft was lost in a tropical storm. An inquiry revealed that the aircraft, low in fuel after flying in torrential rain which made any observation impossible, had been accidentally directed south of the island by an American officer operating radio location, who mistook other aircraft from a carrier in the neighbourhood for the New Zealand Hudson. No trace of the aircraft or its occupants was ever found, though sea and air searches were maintained for some days afterwards. Leslie is named on Panel 1 of the Memorial in the Bourail New Zealand War Cemetery, New Caledonia. He was married to Clarice Dinah Leslie, of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.