Ikins in the News

As most of my friends and family know, I collect military antiques.  As the story below says, I bought several Australian and New Zealand WWI, WWII, and Vietnam War medals back in 1987 when I was briefly working in Tasmania on a project and then stopped in NZ on the way back to the States.  I used my present assignment to Australia as an opportunity to find the original owners (or their families) of the medals.  I have had success in four out of five.  The medal I am holding in the article is to Private Kohi King, a Maori soldier killed in France in September 1916.  I am still working with his "Iwi" (tribal) Office in Otorohanga on the North Island to locate a descendant.  If not, I will turn it over to the local Returned and Services league (RSL) chapter - which is a version of our Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).  In most cases the families were stunned to get a call either from me or from a contact I made, and were very grateful to have the medals back.  No one knew how they ended up in antiques shops where I had bought them for next to nothing.  I just like the fact that they are back where they belong, rather than wrapped in tissue paper in a drawer in Virginia.  This is especially important for descendants, because every year on ANZAC Day in April, the descendants are permitted to wear their ancestor's medals on their right side and march in the parade.  You will see small children wearing campaign and valor medals from the Boer War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and other operations such as East Timor, Rwanda, and Somalia.  And sadly, in some cases, if you are in the right place you will see young children wearing the medals associated with Iraq and Afghanistan (Australia presently has 16 KIA from Afghanistan, some of whom also served in Iraq), awarded to their fathers not very long ago.

For example, look at my young friend below on ANZAC Day 2010.  Those are probably his grandfather's medals on the right side of his chest, but there is no telling - they could be his father's.  And he is marching with the unit his grandfather/father belonged to.  There's a memory for you.

Here's some of the old boys from WWII that we are losing fast.
They had come by early to get a seat at the ceremony and we sat around and talked for awhile.
They were stunned that I could send the photo from my I-phone immediately to my friend in Iraq.  Then we talked about how long they had been away from home during the war - in some cases 3 years - with nothing but mail, and little of that.

Thank you, gentlemen.

What the reporter didn't get right is that with the exception of Robert Garwood, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Clayton Lonetree there are no "Ex-Marines."  You are a Marine to the day the honor guard puts you in the ground.  And note the capital "M."

Here are some photos of our visit with with Mrs. Frank Maxwell of Launceston, Tasmania.  I sent her her husband's medals and promised to visit when I was in Tasmania.  When my brother Jim came, he, my wife Debbie, and I went to Tasmania in May 2010, we drove up to Launceston and had lunch with her.  She was a very nice lady and we will probably see her again as she has a friend in Canberra who lives just around the corner from us.

 

Here are the medals - WWII Service medals - to Francis Maxwell - which I mailed her.  I'm pretty sure he rates one more, and May is working with the local RSL to get it before she has them all mounted for wear and gives them to a great-nephew of Frank (who passed several years ago).

 Here's Frank Maxwell in WWII.  Handsome guy.

And later in life with May, just before he died.

You may ask yourself - "how come Charlie/Chuck has all this time on his hands and when does he work?"  To which I would reply "I'm using the gazillion hours of annual leave I was never given a chance to use."  Actually, you're probably asking yourself how do I know whose medals they are when I buy them?  Well, the British and Commonwealth countries were nice enough to mark their medals with the name of the recipient, service number and, in the older ones, the unit.  Here is one of Frank's medals and the stamped number and name:

The service number is VX 91012, which means he enlisted in the state of Victoria.

Now here are some of the others:

Sgt James Waru Paurini served at Gallipoli; he was a Maori soldier who survived the war.  He was invalided out after Gallipoli in 1915 so he probably was wounded or very ill - both common.  He came home and had 10 children, and I spoke with one of children, a daughter, as well as her daughter.  I sent the medal back and I was told the medal was treated as a "taonga" or "treasure. This is highly significant in the Maori culture and it making its way home is apparently a very unusual event.  The family sent me a copy of his photo from WWI and I combined it with his WWI Victory Medal before I sent it back home:

"Good evening Sir,

My name is Sue Patena, I am the Grand -daughter of James Waru Paurini. Apologies for the instance your email arrived,without replies, Good Friday I spent in hospital with Pneumonia, and have returned home this morning fit and well. What a marvellous day my mother had when we visited Julie McCarthy at the RSA. I had meet Julie while we were doing an 18 hole tournament, and we met up at the 19th when she related your story to me. I truly was amazed. Next day rang my mum and told her we are having a day at the RSA if she could bring info; photos medals anything else pertaining to her Father, and that Julie has a story for us.

Julie starts off her story, followed with questions, and these two ladies whom have never met before are so engrossed in what you started out to do have completed a circle. There were tears and hugs and a new friendship begins. So to you Charles, from my grand-fathers [he had 4 sons, six daughters] rather huge family, we thank-you so much for the return of a TAONGA translated TREASURE.

This will be one of many emails yet to come.

Kindest regards to you and your Wife,

Sue."

 

His great-grandson, who looks exactly like him, is presently in the NZ Army and is serving on a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon:

Here's Sgt Paurini's medal edge:

Below is Private Walter Dunn's 1914-1918 British War Medal; he was a Maori as well.  He survived the war.  I am told that he was a famous "rafter" on the west coast of the North Island of NZ.  This means that when the logs were run down the rivers to the ocean he would ride the rafts of logs and keep them together.  One day they were rafting across a large bay, a storm came up, and of seven men, only Walter survived the storm by swimming a long distance to shore.  He was later sent to England to swim the English Channel, but he got out because he said the water was too cold.  At least that is what my contact at the RSL in his town said.  The medal went back to his great-niece.

Finally, we have the Vietnam War Service Medals of Corporal W.J. Peeters.  His widow lives in Brisbane.  He served a year in VN in 1970 then came home.  He spent about 16 years (I think) in the regulars and then got invalided out and spent the remainder of his time in the reserves.  I bought these medals when I was in Tasmania in 1987 and that was the same time the Peeters were there.  They have no idea how these medals made it into a shop.  Turn out these were a duplicate set (although they are normally marked as such with an "R" for replacement and these were not) and his son had been wearing them on ANZAC Day since Corporal Peeters' death several years ago.  However, this enabled another child to have a set as well and I believe she wore them on ANZAC Day this year.

I'll keep working on Private King's medal.  I haven't heard back from the Iwi Office lately but you never know...until then it's safely stowed here in my office.

Lest We Forget.