The families of more than 500 Māori Battalion troops are likely to receive the war medals their loved ones were denied due to the hard work of one man.
It comes after the long campaign of lawyer David Stone, which has already seen more than 130 soldiers finally honoured for their WWII service.
It was New Zealand's most decorated infantry battalion in WWII, but more than 635 men of 28th Māori battalion's never received their war medals.
Robert Gillies is the last surviving veteran of the group. He says the medals are more than a token gesture, they are a tribute to fallen friends.
“My medals are a passport, whenever they call us to go to a centenary or a celebration.”
But like many others of the battalion's C company the 97-year-old was never given the medals he was due.
Today, the veteran’s uniform is adorned with the symbols of his service, thanks to the work of Stone.
Last year he set about to identify the owners of the unclaimed medals, in the hopes of returning them to their living descendants.
Not an easy task, said Stone.
“You don't know the half of it.
“It's a massive undertaking, it really is, and it's like putting together a massive jigsaw puzzle.
“In a perfect world you'd have the person come forward… with the birth certificate which shows... there's my birth certificate, here's my dad... there's his name as a soldier, done.
“But this is a Māori world and it doesn't quite work as simply as that.”
At the time many Māori joined the war effort under a false name, and sometimes their surviving whānau lacked the official documents to legally recognise kinship.
“Some of the names didn't match up because they changed it... because they were young, they used uncle's names.
“And we had to get birth certificates for kuia that didn't have any.
“Where there's a will there's a way,” said Stone.
But despite this, last year Stone successfully tracked down the identity of 134 soldiers. Now he has plans to locate the remaining 501.
Chief of the New Zealand Army, Major General John Boswell, said the chaos of the war’s end means that at the time many servicemen were denied the recognition they deserved.
“You have to remember there was a mass demobilisation at the end of world war two of tens of thousands of New Zealand soldiers and the processes weren't in place to ensure that was done in an appropriate manner.”
But with the identity of 134 servicemen now known, the medals can be given to their rightful owners.
"[The] medals are now ready for those remaining families for whom they have not been claimed.
"We will perform medal award ceremonies to acknowledge the service and the sacrifice of 28th Māori Battalion."
The list of soldiers who are yet to receive their medals can be found here.
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