Lieutenant Arnold Lessel MacMorland Greig (24 February 1913 - July 1984) was a New Zealand

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

who served as the eleventh

Surveyor-General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor gen ...

of the

Federated Malay States )Under God's Protection , capital = Kuala Lumpur1 , religion = Islam , legislature = Federal Legislative Council , type_house1 = State level , common_languages = , title_leader = Monarch , leader1 ...

, from 1960 to 1963. Arnold Lessel MacMorland Greig was born on 24 February 1913 in Amatikulu,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, the oldest of two children to MacMorland Greig (1893-?) and Susan Robina 'Ruby' née Henderson (1987-1970). Three months after he was born his mother, originally from

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, moved her family back to New Zealand, settling in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Greig received his primary and secondary education at

Dilworth School Dilworth School, often referred to simply as Dilworth, is an independent full boarding school for boys in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest full boarding school in both the country and Australasia. Owned and operated by a charitable tru ...

and

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

. He attended the School of Engineering at the

Auckland University College , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

, joining the surveying firm of Harrison and Greirson, where he trained as a

, qualifying as a registered surveyor in 1935. Greig was appointed to the Malayan Survey Department on 11 September 1937. In 1940, he was sent to India on a six month course in aerial surveying, upon his return to Malaya in September 1941, he joined the newly established Field Survey Company as a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

in the

Straits Settlements Volunteer Force The Straits Settlements Volunteer Force (SSVF) was a military reserve force in the Straits Settlements, while they were under British rule. While the majority of the personnel were from Singapore, some lived in other parts of the Settlements, inc ...

. He was captured during the

Fall of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of ...

and was imprisoned for six months in

Changi Changi () is a planning area located in the geographical region of Tanah Merah in the East Region of Singapore. Sharing borders with Pasir Ris and Tampines to the west, Changi Bay to the southeast, the South China Sea to the east and the Sera ...

Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, between February and August 1942, before he was transferred as a prisoner of war to the

Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

prisoner-of-war camp in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

, from November 1942 to August 1945, where he worked in a local machine tool factory. He was repatriated and embarked on the hospital ship ''

USS Relief USS ''Relief'' may refer to the following ships of the United States Navy: *, a store ship launched in 1836 and sold in 1883 *, a hospital ship commissioned in 1909 and sold in 1919 *, purchased in 1917 and used as a lookout station tender in Main ...

'' (August - September 1945). In 1946 he married Nona Jocelyn Blampied (1918-1987). From 1946 to 1958 he was employed at various times with the Survey Departments of Kedah, Kelantan, Malacca, Perak and Singapore. Greig was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General in 1958 and was promoted to Surveyor-General for the Federation of Malaya on 2 April 1960, retiring from the position on 3 February 1963. In the

1963 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1963 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made "on the occ ...

he was awarded a Order of the British Empire, Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services as Surveyor-General of Malaysia. Upon retirement Greig returned to New Zealand and in 1966 he took up a position as a senior lecturer in the Engineering Department at the University of Auckland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greig, Arnold Lessel MacMorland 1913 births 1984 deaths People from Natal Administrators in British Malaya British people in British Malaya New Zealand surveyors Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

See also

References