Flight Lt. Eric GRIFFITH, SUVA WAR CEMETERY, Fiji.
During the Spanish Civil War, Eric Griffith from Eastbourne, near Wellington, served as a fighter pilot in the Republican air force and shot down several German and Italian planes. He signed a mercenary contract which included a £200 reward for each plane shot down.
Every bit the ‘dashing aviator’, he had been part of an air circus in New Zealand, had flown in China, and served as a member of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Antarctic expeditions.
He was badly wounded in Spain when shot through the shoulder but managed to land his plane in one piece. He was paid £1000 for his injury, as per his contract. After a spell training Spanish pilots, Griffith returned home to get married. As befitting this larger-than-life personality, he then headed for Hollywood in an unsuccessful bid to become a stunt man.
He returned to New Zealand during the Second World War where he became a flight lieutenant in the RNZAF. He was killed in 1942 during an unauthorised joyride in an American air force plane.
Source - NZHistory.net, Ministry of Culture and Heritage