Familiar face well remembered
Anzac Day commemorations returned to normal this year but in Palmerston North they were missing a familiar face.
Alfred Maurice ‘‘Mauri’’ Gordon, one of Manawatu¯’s last remaining World War II veterans, was a constant presence at dawn services and Poppy Day collections for years.
In the days leading up to April 25, the well-dressed gentleman with the distinctive moustache would often station himself with his great mate and fellow World War II veteran, the late Pat Hickton, outside Palmerston North’s Pak’n Save with a collection bucket.
On Anzac Day last year, with his health failing, the 96-year-old still rose before dawn, put on his best clothes, fixed his medals to his chest and stood proudly at his front gate, as was the way during the coronavirus crisis. Gordon died on June 4. He signed up for the army aged 18 in 1941, and served overseas in Italy, Egypt, Austria and Romania, including in the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino. He did not return to New Zealand until 1947 after taking a post with the New Zealand Graves Concentration Unit. It collected fallen Kiwi soldiers’ remains and gave them proper burials, often at Europe’s massive war graves.
Gordon did not travel overseas again until 2014, when he was one of several New Zealand veterans flown to Italy to mark 70 years since the Battle of Monte Cassino.
He told Stuff the highlight of his trip was visiting the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, where he had helped relocate bodies.
‘‘When I left it was all just wooden crosses and dirt. Now the way it is done is extremely good.’’
He barely recognised the town of Cassino, having last glimpsed it in ruins during the war.
At a remembrance service, Gordon shook hands with Prince Harry.
‘‘He said: That is an impressive moustache. I said: You too could have one; but he said: It suits you.’’
Gordon was the second oldest of six siblings.
Younger sister Pat Young, 87, of Palmerston North, said he lied about his age and tricked their parents, Alf and Ida, into signing the sign-up documentation, so keen was he to be part of the war effort.
‘‘I remember my mother being very upset because she thought that he should not be going because he falsified his age.
‘‘They did not do anything about it because they thought this is what he wants to do.’’
Pat Young also remembers her parents sending biscuit tins full of supplies to him, such as fruit cake, chewing gum and lollies.
Gordon’s younger siblings were jealous at the time but did not have an appreciation of what their brother was going through.
Their mother would remind them that they always ate a substantial Sunday roast, which Gordon would not get.
He would always write back and thank them, saying he and his mates enjoyed the supplies.
Gordon would also give food to the Italians, many of whom were impoverished. ‘‘They thought it was wonderful if you gave them a bar of chocolate, which had perhaps come from my mother.’’
Young remembers being embarrassed by Gordon sporting a beard and his trademark
Mauri Gordon rode speedway bikes and then worked at the speedway as a steward.
moustache on his return home.
The beard left but the moustache stayed for the rest of his life. ‘‘It was very Italian.
‘‘Today he would fit in very well but there were not many beards at that time.’’
Gordon married Olive Robinson in 1949, who died in the early 1990s, and worked as a harvester, engineer, drain layer and for what became Lion Breweries 1956-1986. He rode speedway bikes and then worked at the speedway as a steward.
Grandson Samuel Gordon, 34, was close to Mauri, regularly going to garage sales with him and spending plenty of time in his company. Samuel tells a story about his granddad sitting at his dining room table when a bee flew in, hovered around and landed. Gordon spoke to the bee, which then flew out exactly the way it came in.
‘‘We thought it was really sweet. He always talked to insects and animals.’’