The death occurred at the Mangonui County Hospital last Sunday, of Mr. R. S. W. Perry of Kaitaia, son of Mrs. W. Perry, now of England, and the late Dr. W. Perry, the first Medical Superintendent of this County’s Hospital when it was situated at Mangonui. Mr. Perry was born in 1900 at Petone, Wellington, and was educated at Christ’s College, Christchurch. As a young man he followed farming pursuits, first at Kaikoura on the East Coast of the South Island and later in the Te Kuiti and Taupo districts before coming North to enter the timber industry at Kaingaroa, He was later employed by a Whangarei firm as a salesman. In 1939 he purchased a land estate and agency business in Kaitaia but, early in the war he joined the National Military Reserve, transferring later to the N.Z.E.F. Posted overseas with the Fifth Reinforcements, he was attached to the 4th N.Z. Armoured Brigade coincident with its conversion to an armoured unit. He assumed the rank of Armourer Staff Sergeant after undergoing an armourers’ course and served four years in the Middle East and Italy, during which time he practised his trade with the skill of the specialist, was highly respected by the men and one of the best known and most popular N.C.O.s in the Division. On his return to N.Z. he was demobilised and for one year was Sub Area Officer in charge of the Kaitaia Army Office with the rank of Warrant Officer - 1st. Class. Mr. Perry was a keen and energetic member of the R.S.A., as secretary of the Mangonui County branch, and proved himself an exceptionally capable executive officer when carrying the greater part of the responsibility attached to the arrangements for the building of the new R.S.A. Hall in Kaitaia. His last active duty for the Association before he entered hospital around six weeks ago, was to attend the Dominion Conference in Wellington and to report to the branch at its quarterly meeting. Mr. Perry was married to Miss Thomazena Miller of Auckland in 1923, and he is survived by his wife and two children, Mrs. M. Waddell and Mr. Dick Perry of Kaitaia ; one sister, Mrs. Streeton of Maidenhead, England ; and his mother. Mr. Perry’s father, Dr. W. Perry, was a 1914-18 war casualty. The funeral left St. Saviour’s Anglican Church, Kaitaia, yesterday afternoon and was attended by a large number of members of the R.S.A., some of whom, with old school friends of the late Mr. Perry, were the pall-bearers.

NORTHLAND AGE, VOLUME XVI, ISSUE 89, 2 SEPTEMBER 1947, PAGE 1

{ It appears, from the British Medical Journal and CWGC records, that his his father, Dr.Walter Dymock Perry, was not a war casualty. He left New Zealand prior to WW1 and was practising in Earls Court, London. He served with the RAMC, first as Lieutenant, then Captain. He died in Woking, UK in 1922 DB  (BMJ 8th April 1922 page 8}}