Families want treasured war memorabilia back
For the Armishaws, it’s a letter about socks. For the Neesons, it’s a grandfather’s medals. For both, it’s about lost heritage.
The Wellington families say the Rotorua RSA has lost precious war memorabilia.
The organisation says it returned all loaned items before it sold the rest to pay debts, but Robert Neeson says it’s lost an important piece of his family’s background.
‘‘It’s not just people stealing history but it’s people stealing heritage.’’
Neeson said his grandfather’s four medals – some earned in South Africa – were lent to the RSA in the late 70s after the organisation asked to include them in a display.
Despite requests over the years for their return, they were never seen again and when he read last week that Timaru RSA had lost a war vet’s medals he got angry.
‘‘It certainly leaves a bitter taste in your mouth when you realise you’re not the only one it’s happened to.’’
His son had registered the medals’ details with collectors, but Neeson suspected if the medals were going to be found it would have happened long ago.
‘‘If someone has them, they’ll know they’ve been taken from a serviceman and they’re not telling.’’
Richard Armishaw said the
RSA lost a letter from the famous General Douglas Haig, thanking his wife’s great-grandfather, Walter Dowie, for sending two pairs of socks to Haig, who penned his reply six days before World War I ended in 1918.
‘‘You must feel very proud of the splendid fellows you have sent to Europe to fight for all we hold most dear . . . they are such thorough men in every way,’’ that letter to Dowie read.
More than 50 years later, Dowie’s granddaughter, Winnie Dugdale, lent the letter to the RSA and, despite numerous attempts, the family never got it back.
‘‘You think it’s in safe hands and you think it’s there but it wasn’t and it’s not.’’ Rotorua RSA treasurer Tom Attwood said the organisation was forced to close in 2015 to repay debt, and all memorabilia it owned had been sold – mainly to the Rotorua Museum. ‘‘I’m fairly confident that nothing was sold that wasn’t gifted.’’
Other relatives might have picked it up memorabilia, said Attwood.
Former Rotorua RSA curator Alan Bines said he advertised for owners to pick up their belongings when the organisation shut. There was a chance they were in the museum, he said.