Sailor killed in WWII finally gets Arctic Star
More than 80 years after he was killed in action in World War II, Able Seaman Albert Vernon Campbell has been posthumously honoured for his service.
Campbell was just 21 when he died, a world away from his home in Dunedin, after the British navy vessel he was on, the HMS Neptune, hit mines off the coast of Libya, on December 9, 1941.
Only one sailor survived. Of the 764 men who died, 150 were New Zealanders – the country’s worst naval disaster.
Campbell’s nephew, John Campbell, was researching his uncle’s war history when a fellow online researcher told him his late uncle was eligible for – but had not been awarded – the Arctic Star, which honours Allied convoys that sailed to North Russia. Campbell served on such convoys.
The award was important to his family, who only have replicas of his other medals, the originals presumably lost with the Neptune.
‘‘It is important to have something tangible,’’ John Campbell said. ‘‘To say this belonged to him.’’
To get the Arctic Star took about eight months. Campbell had to provide affidavits documenting his link to his late uncle, who had no children, via his late father.
‘‘I just think about my dad who could never talk about him without going into tears.’’
The family had a photograph of another brother, Harry, a soldier, with Vern on the bridge of the Neptune when it docked in North Africa, before its last voyage.
Campbell said his grandparents struggled with the death of their son, partly because of the ‘‘veil of secrecy’’ about the sinking of the Neptune.
‘‘No-one knew anything. There are letters from my grandfather to the Defence Force saying ‘We need to know where my son is’.’’
Some 16 men managed to climb aboard a raft but perished over the next five days. Their bodies reportedly washed-up on the island of Malta, Campbell said. The only survivor was John Norman Walton.
The process of researching, applying and then receiving the medal had been a rewarding one for Campbell.
‘‘Let’s not celebrate but commemorate, because he earned this.’’
He was now planning how to display the Arctic Star alongside the other replicas, to preserve them for future generations. ‘‘But they will be worn on Anzac Day, because that is what it is all about.’’