Maj A. L. Lomas, MC, m.i.d.; Hamilton; born Wanganui, 30 Jun 1916; medical practitioner; RMO ASC Jan 1940-Jun 1941; OC Maadi Camp Hosp Jun 1942-Apr 1943; DADMS 2 NZ Div Aug 1943-Apr 1944. (Source: Cody, J.F. 28 Maori Battalion. p.177.)

'A party from A Section, finding its weary Fusiliers and learning that the cooks' truck was lost as usual, brewed up and gave them tea and food. An A Section corporal joined them, deeply distressed at what he had just seen. There was one bunch of Italian officers under guard, he said, and another bunch was marched over to them. They recognised cobbers and wept and embraced and started kissing each other! Tinker, in B Section, treated his suffering stomach to a tin of Italian fruit salad, while others, pocketing Italian cigarettes and putting aside bottles of mineral waters, sampled tinned Italian tunny fish, sardines, a jellied meat which was probably horse, and a pleasing mess of macaroni with tomato sauce and cheese. And, of course, wine and more wine. More ambitious loot included neat-looking pistols and watches, but the fountain pens were deplorable affairs. Set aside as curiosities for air-mailing home in the non-censored green envelopes were 50 and 100 lire notes, bearing the picture of a rather apologetic Italian king, and only later did many a driver realise with a curse that these notes were worth real money in Cairo. Sheddan, with another C Section man, flashed a torch into a dugout and flushed two prisoners. Offered a smoke, one prisoner gave in return a fine photograph of himself.
But souvenir collecting was only part of the story. Drivers also turned their hand to first aid and helped gather wounded.
Lieutenant Allan Lomas, a New Zealand medical officer attached to 4 RMT Company, assisted by his medical orderly, Driver Jack Prichard, worked for twelve hours without food or rest. Part of the time they were under fire. They attended to the wounded of both sides, and for their work Lomas received the MC and Prichard the MM.' (Source: Henderson, J. 4th and 6th Reserve Mechanical Transport Companies. p. 36.) AWMM