Potential Breakthrough on the "Mystery Medal"

Our faithful readers - all 18 of you - will remember that I am tracking down the families of the recipients of Commonwealth medals I have in my collection.  Since the British Empire was considerate enough to mark them with the name, serial number, and unit of the recipient, with some sleuthing (and help from interested parties) you can usually find someone who was related to the person and would like the medal back.  For background on this see the "Ikins in the News" page.

This last medal, to 16/802 Private Kohi King, N.Z.E.F. [New Zealand Expeditionary Force] has proven more challenging than the rest.  I have been in touch with his Iwi (tribal) office on the North Island.  They had put a call for information out to the elders with no luck.  His next of kin (NOK) was listed as his father (see below), which means he wasn't married when he left.  Which means (probably) he had no children and thus nobody was actively searching for information on their grandfather, so to speak.  Or so I thought.

I purchased his 1914-1915 Star in New Zealand on the North Island at an antique shop in March of 1987 (the story of how I have these medals is below).

And here is the medal in the photo above:

Private King was Killed In Action at the Somme, France, on September 14th, 1916.
Here is where he is buried - the Dantzig Alley British Cemetery in Mametz, France:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=61000&mode=1

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=547893

http://www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=547893


 Anyway, I posted in the New Zealand Returned and Services (RSL)
Newsletter a request for any information pertaining to Private King.
I immediately got a response from none other than the Director of the New Zealand Army Museum who offered his assistance and then told me that he had a person on his staff assigned to work with the Iwis and she recalled an e-mail from someone asking about a Kingi Temate, who would have been Private King's father - plus the name of the Iwi was correct.  So I fired off an e-mail to the address provided, explaining who I was and what I was doing.  Yesterday I got an e-mail back from a gentlemen in Queensland who provided a great deal of detail and while not a direct descendant (apparently Mr. Temate had three wives), he had heard of Private King when his brother was doing some family research.  So we will talk more this week and see what else we can find out.

I love a good historical research project.  As this medal is, in the Maori culture, an important taonga, or treasure, I want it to go back to where it belongs.  More later.

Lest We Forget.