Korean war veteran turns 100
When Palmerston North’s Alan Cull tells people his date of birth, they think he’s telling them today’s date.
“Somebody asked me my date of birth the other day. I said ‘28, 3, 24’. They said ‘not the date, your date of birth’. I said ‘28, 3, 24’,” Cull who turns 100 today said.
Cull served in the mobile dental unit during the Korean War in the 1950s.
After his return from Korea he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), which was presented by Queen Elizabeth II in Wellington during her visit to New Zealand in 1953-54.
“It was a shake of the hand and she asked, ‘how long were you in Korea?’”
Today the Palmerston North officers’ club is taking him for dinner, but he said otherwise it wouldn’t be a big day.
Long retired from dentistry, Cull lives by himself and is active and mobile.
He said he kept as busy as possible, including spending time maintaining his property.
“I used to do a two-mile walk every day. I used to walk around The Square. I don’t go quite as far now but I still go walking.
“I lived to 100, I must have done something right.” His two brothers have died and he doesn’t have children, but he has nieces and nephews.
Cull went to Central Normal School, then Central School, and Palmerston North Boys’ High School.
“I remember when I was starting school, it was during the Great Depression. But at the age of 5 you don’t even know what depression means. Everything seemed quite normal to me at the time but a lot of people did suffer. I had resilient working parents.”
He became a trainee radiographer at Palmerston North Hospital during World War II. At the time, people were scared Japan would bomb the city.
“The siren would go in Palmerston North and my job was to report to the X-ray department.
“I would cycle from [home at] Lyndhurst St, down Featherston St, and by the time I got there I’d get the all clear to go home.”
He studied dentistry in Dunedin then worked as a resident dentist at Wellington Hospital.
He joined the army as a reserve dental officer and hadn’t thought he would end up spending two years in Korea for the war.
The mobile dental unit was attached to a field artillery regiment and he treated soldiers’ dental problems with primitive equipment.
They weren’t at the front, but he said they had to be prepared to move in a hurry.
“We had a few moments of tension when the Chinese broke through the lines.”
The freezing climate was difficult and his anaesthetic would freeze.
“I was most popular during the first very cold winter. All the troops got a rum ration.
“I used to have a queue outside the dental tent because I had oil of clove, and cloves with rum was a popular drink.”
After the war he came home to Palmerston North and joined a practice in Coleman Place for about 30 years and retired aged 60.