Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Lt Col

Army Number : AI. 537

Unit : 1st Bn

Biography :

Educated at Christ's College, Christchurch (NZ) and RMC Sandhurst, John Maling was commissioned into Indian Army (Unattached List) on 29.9.1935. Served initial year in A Company 1st Leicesters in India in 1935-36, and then joined 1st Sikh Light Infantry. Awarded M.C. as Company Commander, 1/11th Sikh Regt, Waziristan, India, Oct 1937 (L.G. 31.12.1937) and Mentioned in Despatches for same period (L.G. 18.2.1938). Maling was the adjutant and a founding member of the Mazhbi and Ramdasia Sikhs, later known as the Sikh Light Infantry, which was raised at Jullundur in 1941. Awarded the D.S.O. as CO 1st Sikh LI, Burma, 7-9 Apr 1945 (L.G. 20.9.1945) and Mentioned in Despatches (L.G. 19.9.1946). Wounded on 10.4.1945 and after hospitalisation took command of Bn. In 1947 he attended Staff College at Quetta. On the Partition of India that year he transferred to the Royal Artillery, serving first as a battery commander with 66 Airborne Light Regiment RA and then as brigade major with the 53rd Welsh Division. He served in Egypt with 33 Airborne Light Regiment RA before instructing at the School of Land/Air Warfare. On 29.9.1956 he took command of 16 LAA Regiment RA in Cyprus, then returned to the School of Land/Air Warfare as an instructor. He retired from the Army on 16.2.1959 and returned to New Zealand. From 1959 to 1981 he worked for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. For a number of years he was a voluntary worker with the New Zealand Schizophrenia Fellowship. He died in 2009, aged 94 years.

Date of Birth : 2.2.1915

Place of Birth : Timaru, New Zealand

Date of Death : 16.3.2009

Place of Death : New Zealand

Civil Occupation : NZ Security Intelligence Service

Period of Service : 1933-59

Conflicts : Waziristan, WW2

Places Served : India, Burma, UK, Egypt, Cyprus