Plaques replaced on veterans’ graves
Tears were shed and the Last Post was played as family and friends gathered to return more than 40 war veteran plaques stolen in a drug-fuelled theft in Canterbury.
The brass plaques were stolen from the graves of service men and women at the Springston Cemetery, in Selwyn, sometime between April 25 and May 9.
About 180 family members, veterans, Returned Services Association (RSA) representatives and politicians gathered at the cemetery on Saturday to unveil the new plaques and rededicate them.
Among those at the service was Springston resident Bruce Tweedy. The plaques for his father, Errol, who served as a mechanic for the NZ Army in Italy and the Middle East during World War II, and his mother, Marion, were both taken and defaced. When he heard the news his parents’ plaques had been stolen Tweedy went straight to the cemetery. ‘‘It was just gut-wrenching to see how they had been outed from the concrete.’’
But Saturday’s ceremony restored dignity to his parents after ‘‘a long seven months’’, Tweedy said. ‘‘I found it brought
More than 180 family members, veterans, Returned Services Association (RSA) representatives and politicians gathered at Springston Cemetery in Selwyn on Saturday to unveil the new plaques and rededicate them.
closure to me and my family, it was a beautiful ceremony. It was very moving and there was a lot of tears but well worth the effort.’’
Canterbury RSA district president Stan Hansen said the ceremony was ‘‘humbling’’. ‘‘We restored not only honour, we restored dignity and respect and it was most humbling to be a part of that, it gave you a really good feeling that these veterans and their spouses are now given their respect and could rest in peace again.’’
A NZ Defence Force media release said all Canterbury scrap metal dealers agreed to not accept memorial plaques following the thefts. Both Tweedy and Hansen applauded the agreement.
‘‘I am pleased to hear that because it is not just [happening] in Springston it is an ongoing [issue],’’ Tweedy said.
The plaques cost more than $21,000 to reinstate, which Veterans Affairs paid for.
Gail Maree Wickes, 41, admitted she stole the plaques and sold them to scrap metal dealers to pay for her methamphetamine addiction. She was jailed for 26 months in August. The court heard Wickes was not the ringleader but she did not say who else was involved. She handed herself in to police a few weeks after they began investigating.