"If this rate was similar to that of the 28 (Maori) Battalion, however, we estimate around 22,000 New Zealanders who served overseas during the war may never have been issued their medals."ĭefence Historian John Crawford said the response, or lack thereof, should not be seen as surprising. "We don't know exactly how many army and air force medals remain unissued because there were no general surveys of the rate of uptake after 1960," Buck said. While the families of the nearly 12,000 New Zealanders who died in the war received their medals automatically in the mail. The uptake was higher for Royal New Zealand Navy veterans, who received a special "Naval Prize Money" payment of £5 if they applied for their medals.
There were only two exceptions to this pattern. "After that, the take-up appears to have been nothing more than a dribble - less than a third of a percent annually." "Given the importance placed on medals today, it's hard to fathom that only around a quarter of New Zealand Army and Royal New Zealand Air Force veterans claimed their medals by 1960," Buck said. New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) historian Matthew Buck found there was a low rate of uptake of medals by Army and Air Force veterans from across the New Zealand armed forces after distribution began in 1950. Photo: Supplied / Stuffįamilies are encouraged to check whether medals were issued for relatives who served in World War II after new research revealed many were never claimed. A set of World War II medals, original issue with original ribbons, claimed by the recipient but never worn.
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