About the Author

Professor Vincent Orange was born in Shildon, County Durham, in 1935 and educated at St. Mary's Grammar School, Darlington, in the Royal Air Force (1953-6), and at Hull University. In 1962 he went to live in New Zealand and taught History at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch until he retired in 2002. In his young days, he had parts in twenty stage plays (several directed by Dame Ngaio Marsh) and about fifty radio plays. He also appeared regularly on television, commenting on current affairs. In addition to his eight books (including Park, Dowding and Slessor published by Grub Street) and numerous other articles and conference papers, he contributed nineteen essays to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is addicted to, amongst other things, cricket, rugby, Jane Austen, Richard Wagner (and all other noisy Romantics), his wife Sandra, her son Gerard and daughter Sarah.