Progress in battle for war records
An ongoing battle between families and an English university over the ownership of precious New Zealand war records has had a break through with officials promising to help get the memorabilia back.
Arts, Culture and Heritage minister Maggie Barry sent letters to some of the affected families who came forward for help last month. The letter said she was confident progress would be made to bring the diaries back to New Zealand.
‘‘I have asked my officials at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage to work with the Alexander Turnbull Library to explore options with Leeds University for the repatriation of the diaries,’’ the letter said.
‘‘Please be assured that the families of the servicemen will be kept informed on the progress and any decisions made during the consultation process.
‘‘These processes have been given significant consideration.’’
Leeds University holds the Liddle Collection which includes war diaries, photos, letters and other heirlooms of Kiwi World War I and II servicemen that are considered nationally significant.
Families believed the material in the collection was loaned to historian Peter Liddle who took the items back to England in the 70s.
Margaret Kearns of Stoke continued the search for her father Hartley Valentine Palmer’s war diary after his death. She said he died never knowing where his diary was.
He pled with the New Zealand Government and Defence Force while he was alive to help see his diary returned after he ‘‘loaned’’ it to Peter Liddle for research.
In 1984 an investigation into the possession of Palmer’s and other war veterans’ diaries was underway but the case went cold as New Zealand headed into an election.
Kearns said the news from Barry was ‘‘promising’’ however she was concerned the timing was similar to the 1984 circumstances that saw the original investigation and potential repatriation of the diary fail.
She said further members of the public had come forward since her story was published realising they also had connections to the diaries in the Leeds collection who also wanted to see action taken for the memorabilia’s repatriation.
‘‘The feedback I’ve had back from the public and people realising this has been going on ... This can’t carry on.’’
Wanganui man Bruce Annear also contacted Barry to have his grandfather’s records returned after reading stories about the collection on Stuff.
He said he had been frightened to speak out after his family lost a significant amount of material to the offshore collection more than 40 years ago.
‘‘I’ve been looking for years,’’ he said. ‘‘My grandfather wrote to his sister every six weeks while he served through Gallipoli right through to the end of the war.
‘‘We’re hoping that somehow we can get those letters back to New Zealand and even if they were archived at the Turnbull Library or something like that, it would be fantastic.’’
Items the family lost to the overseas collection include a bundle of 22 letters written from Egypt by his grandfather Albert Frederick Gooding Cooper, the Western Front and Britain between 1915 and 1919 as well as a diary written between 1914 and 1916 and a soldier’s pay book.
Annear only found out a year ago his grandfather’s precious handwritten personal war records still existed after years believing they were lost forever.
He was reading through a book Johnny Enzed: The New Zealand Soldier in the First World War 1914-1918 when his grandfather’s name was attributed to letters written to his great-aunt, Eleanor.
Flicking to the back of the book he saw the words came from the Liddle Collection, housed in Leeds.
Annear said his uncle had loaned the materials in good faith, but until last year the family was not even aware it was renown English historian Peter Liddle who had taken the items offshore.
‘‘We didn’t actually know whether it was for research. We thought it was part of a story to get hold of them.’’
Annear said he was a university student when the family first lost track of the items and remembers the hurt it caused his mother. ’’I emailed Leeds University [last year] just to verify they had them.’’
Annear has since written to the Government for help on the matter alongside other affected families.
Barry said last month the National Library and the New Zealand Defence Force was working to liaise with Leeds University after more families had made contact for her help.
She said an ‘‘effort’’ was underway to have ‘‘the families precious war diaries back home where they belong’’.
‘‘I have every sympathy for them because the diaries are a last tangible link to the family members who fought so bravely,’’ Barry said.
She was hopeful for progress on the matter in coming months.