The oddity of a cockney Māori cop never fails to make one of his oldest mates smile.
Rod Grieve went to Palmerston North Boys' High with Matiu Ratana and then, as many young people do, lost contact as both forged careers.
But not for long.
"I went on the proverbial OE to London, and there I was standing around the Trafalgar Square, and I hear this cockney accent," Grieve recalled.
"'Hey Geezer.' And I turned around and there was Matt dressed up full bobby uniform. Smooth as you like with this English accent."
New Zealand friends and whānau want to celebrate the British officer's life - even as they've had to endure watching Ratana's last moments captured on CCTV play out publicly during the trial of the man accused of his murder.
Louis De Zoysa, 23 at the time, was found guilty of murder today in a British courtroom.
He had denied killing Ratana with a concealed gun at the Croydon Custody Centre in 2020.
Ratana's early policing is a record of 1990s history. In 1992, a year after joining the London Metropolitan Police and while based at Charing Cross Police Station, he was just 300 metres from an IRA bomb that exploded outside 10 Downing Street.
He'd do stints as a police protection officer - for Princess Diana, the Queen Mother and Prime Minister John Major.
In total, he'd serve for 29 years there. But he'd also take a five-year break and work in Auckland from 2004. 1News spoke to him then as he retrained with other British-based cops who'd moved to New Zealand.
"It's a positive aspect of New Zealand culture that they've embraced as they've come through the college."
Grieve said Ratana was special.
"He started on the front beat, moved through the ranks into surveillance and all sorts of ops that he couldn't tell me about," Grieve said
"But for me, it wasn't a surprise seeing him grow and develop and become a leader. He was always a natural leader of people. His gift was connecting with people."
Another friend Paul Yates said he was taken far too soon.
"He's a Kiwi hero, he's a Māori hero, and he gave his life serving his community and his life was taken tragically too soon."
Stu Leighton, a former teacher who kept in touch over the decades, said he loved reading how an English colleague described him.
"I saw an interview, and the English cop said 'everybody liked Matt, including the criminals'. I think that was pretty good, and it summed him up quite nicely, I think."
Ratana was a staunch rugby man and coached in London.
Leighton said he'd set him up with Joe Schmidt, an ex-PNBH teacher, not long after the then-Irish coach had beaten the All Blacks in 2016.
"And through our little connection, Matt spent a week with Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell preparing for a Test match.
"Matt said to me later it was probably one of the best weeks of his whole life."
His whakapapa and last name directly linked him to Ratana church prophet and founder Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana. Iriaka Ratana, the first Māori woman MP is his grandmother, and Parliament's Speaker Adrian Rurawhe is a first cousin.
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