Dare to Achieve: An Autobiography by A. R. (Ron) GUTHREY, SIGNED by Ron Guthrey OBE MC

The Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1997.

Very good softback, minor shelf/edge wear.

Albert Ronald Guthrey OBE MC was a councillor for Christchurch City Council for 22 years before being elected Mayor of Christchurch. He was a World War II veteran and he and his family were well known business operators in Christchurch.

Guthrey was a member of the New Zealand 20th Battalion during World War II. The battalion left Lyttelton on 5 January 1940 for Egypt.

In November 1941 Guthrey's battalion was part of the New Zealand 4th Infantry Brigade in the 2nd New Zealand Division, he was the second lieutenant commanding the Bren Gun Carrier platoon. For a series of actions on 22 November, 23 November and on 25 November, he was recommended for the Military Cross by his battalion commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Kippenberger. Kippenberger praised Guthrey's "skill and dash" on the Bardia Road on 22 November, and called Guthey's flank attack on Bir Cleta on 23 November "probably decisive"; but most praise was reserved for his rescue of the crew of another Bren Gun Carrier under heavy artillery fire on 25 November. A few days later, during the Battle of Belhamed on 1 December 1941, Guthrey was wounded and lost a leg. He lay on the battlefield until a German burial party in a captured New Zealand truck found him and took him to a hospital. His MC was duly gazetted on 20 January 1942. He did not learn of it until some time later when his parents sent him a newspaper clipping containing this news.

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