The Platform New Zealand

  ~  4 September 2024  ~  

Sean Plunket talks to Medals Reunited Founder Ian Martyn

Watch the full video at https://theplatform.kiwi/

https://www.facebook.com/theplatformnz/videos/1269692411068127

 

Airman’s medal found

• BY CHRIS GARDNER  

Lost war medals turn up in the most unlikely places as historian

and freelance journalist Chris Gardner found recently

Medals Reunited New Zealand director Ian Martyn returned the medal to the airman’s niece Denise Jones in Te Awamutu last month after it fell out of a sideboard in Hamilton.

The sideboard belonged to Dennis’ brother, Leo, and was sold when he moved into Hillview Rest Home and Hospital in Te Kuiti about two years ago.

After the medal fell out of the dresser the new owner sent it to Martyn who contacted me.

In 2016, I had been researching Sergeant-Pilot Dennis James Dempsey’s death in 1941.

A sergeant pilot, he was a non-commissioned officer who had undergone flight training and was a qualified pilot.

Martyn contacted military historian and Waitomo Caves Museum and Discovery Centre education officer Ross O’Halloran who found the family for him.

“That was an amazing round about way of returning it,” said Dempsey’s niece Denise, who was named after him.

“Dad died in August.  He would have loved this story.  The medal was attached to a photo of my uncle which we gave to a cousin, but then the medal fell out of Dad’s old sideboard in Hamilton.”

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Dennis Dempsey was born in Piopio on September 18, 1919, and educated at Piopio District High School.  He represented Maniapoto in rugby, played tennis and was a keen runner.

He was a Post and Telegraph Department cadet when he enlisted at the Initial Training Wing, Levin, on December 22, 1940.

He would be dead within a year.

Having completed initial training, the young aviator was posted to a flying training at Whenuapai and Ohakea in February 1941, where he was awarded the flying badge and promoted to sergeant.  He left for the United Kingdom on July 22, 1941, aboard the Dominion Monarch and reached Bournemouth on September 3.  He continued operational training in Hertfordshire – where he lost his life on his final night cross-country training flight.

Dempsey was the second pilot of a Wellington bomber which crashed into a ploughed field at Upwood, Huntingdonshire. He was 21.

He was buried in the Bassingbourn Cum Kneesworth Cemetery.  News of his death reached his family in Te Mapara, 11.7 km southwest of Te Kuiti, via a telephone call from the Piopio postmaster.

Now the family is researching what other medals Dempsey earned, with a view to finding replicas.

Auckland Museum’s online cenotaph lists Dempsey as a recipient of the War Medal 1939-1945 and the New Zealand War Service Medal.

“Ian’s advice was to put all of my uncle’s memorabilia together,” Denise Jones said.

Female members of his family can wear the New Zealand Memorial Cross.

“If there was a mother and a grandmother (or mother and daughter) the family could get two crosses,” said Martyn. “If the mother was dead, it could be worn by her daughter.”

Martyn has returned more than 550 medals to the families of service members since 2014.

“It gives me an interest … it’s taken over my life now.” he said.

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A detailed story of Dennis Dempsey’s service will be published by Medals Reunited NZ in the near future.

If you are an RN or RNZN (HMNZS Rotoiti and Pukaki) veteran who participated in any of the prescribed operations conducted in conjunction with nuclear testing from 1952 to 1967 in the Pacific, e. g. Operation GRAPPLE, you may be eligible for the Nuclear Test Medal that has been approved for issue by the UK Government.  

HISTORY

Following many years of campaigning, in November 2022, the British Government announced the creation of a new medal intended to recognise the contribution of military and civilian personnel that took part in the various programs aimed at developing nuclear weapons to be used by the British Armed Forces.  The announcement was made to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first UK nuclear test.  In July 2023, the design of the new medal was released.  The first medal issues will be made to personnel in the UK on Remembrance Sunday (Armistice Day) in November 2023. 

MEDAL DESIGN

The medal features a crowned effigy of Charles III with the inscription CHARLES III DEI GRATIA REX FID DEF on the obverse, while the reverse shows an atom design surrounded by olive branches, with the words NUCLEAR TEST MEDAL beneath.

The ribbon has a central white stripe, with symmetrical stripes of yellow, black and red, and sky blue stripes on the out edge – the blue is intended to represent the sky and the sea in the Pacific, where the UK’s nuclear tests took place.

ELIGIBILITY

The Nuclear Test Medal is awarded to UK Service and civilian personnel, and individuals from other nations, who served at the locations where the UK atmospheric nuclear testing between 1952 [1] and 1967 inclusive.

To qualify for the Nuclear Test Medal, individuals need to have served at locations where atmospheric testing took place during the UK’s atomic and thermonuclear development programs, including the preparatory and clear-up phases,[2] between 1952 and 1967, on one of the following test operations:

• Operation HURRICANE– October 1952, Montebello Islands, Western Australia
• Operation TOTEM– October 1953, Emu Field, South Australia
• Operation MOSAIC– June 1956, Montebello Islands, Western Australia
• Operation BUFFALO– September – October 1956, Maralinga, South Australia
• Operation GRAPPLE– May 1957 – September 1958, Malden Island, Kiribati
• Operation ANTLER– September – October 1957, Maralinga, South Australia

To be awarded the medal, the recipient must have served either as a member of the armed forces, or as civilian personnel [3] in one of the named operational areas.

Although the UK did not conduct nuclear testing after 1957, eligibility for the medal covers not just participation in the tests themselves, but also in the preparation and clean-up phases.   

The medal can also be awarded to any UK personnel that participated in Operation DOMINIC, a series of atmospheric nuclear tests undertaken by the United States between April and October 1962. 

QUALIFYING SERVICE

The Medal is awarded for any length of service in one day.

Notes

1. This date has been selected as the UK’s first atmospheric nuclear test took place in October 1952
2. Including Operation CLEAN-UP, Operation HERCULES, and Operation BRUMBY.
3. Civilian personnel would be primarily those serving with either the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment or the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

References

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-medal-design-unveiled-to-honour-veterans-of-britains-nuclear-tests

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nuclear-test-medal-eligibility-criteria

Wikipedia

Reuniting Medals with families …