UPDATE #1 ~ 20979 Cpl. ALBERT EVERITT, M.M. ~ Restored and reunited after 98 years.

20979 – ALBERT EVERITT, M.M.   ~~~~  UPDATE    

To read the original Post click >>> HERE

…. continued …. I discovered that whilst I had the correct address, unfortunately Mary Ellen Everitt had passed away in 2015.  Mr ‘Google’ and I went back to the internet to look for Mary’s obituary notice.  With a bit of luck I might find a family contact there.  The Waikato Times had published Mary’s obituary on 7 April 2015 and was still on-linr although archived which requires payment to retrieve.  The very small portion that was only just visible was enough to give me a critical lead without buying access.  In the un-obscured portion of the notice, it could see .. “Next of Kin – Anthony Everitt”

Now that I had a name to zero in on it was back to the Electoral Rolls where I soon located one “Anthony J. Everitt” however there was no address, phone number or listing for him in the telephone book.  Before going to the Funeral Home that had conducted the service for Mary I considered that if Timothy had passed away some time ago, Mary would likely have stayed in the family home in Morrinsville until illness or death necessitated her relocation.  It just might be possible that if Anthony was still in Morrinsville, he may have been caring for his mother in her final years (“next of kin”) and therefore living at home – if this was the case he would not require a separate phone listing ?  I took a punt and called Mary Ellen’s phone number which was the same as that against her former address.  Anthony (Tony) Everitt answered, confirmed I was on the right track and referred me to his brother Terry in Auckland who had inherited the family’s historian mantle following his mother’s death.  In due course Terry provided the proof I required of his family’s heritage thereby confirming his and Tony’s ancestral entitlement to Cpl. Albert Everitt’s Military Medal.

How did the medal end up in Roger’s backyard ?

How the medal came to be in Sunnynook, Glenfield will likely remain a mystery.  I could surmise that as the area was largely farmland until it was re-developed for housing in the early 1970s, it was not inconceivable that Albert’s grandmother, Mary (Toomey) Everitt or his mother Mary Ann (May), both of whom had lived variously at 9 Hardinge St and 120 Nelson St in Central Auckland (only a few kilometres away), had either lived  in or visited a property in the vicinity of Roger McK.’s Sunnynook home.  alternatively it would also not be beyond the realms of possibility that the medal may have been misplaced at one of either the Hardinge or Nelson Street cottages in central Auckland which the Everitt ladies had lived in.  Once the cottages were demolished and the spoil removed (containing the medal?), it could easily have been dumped in what had been vacant farm land prior to the Sunnynook residential development being built.  The former addresses of both Everitt ladies are now in the heart of the city’s commercial centre, Harding Street now being part of a motorway on-ramp.

Reunited at last …

In my original Post on Albert Everitt I related how Roger McK. of Glenfield found the Military Medal and that the NZDF had agreed to funding its restoration.  This was recently completed.  The Military Medal was mounted along side an original British War Medal and Victory Medal sourced from the UK, and of the same vintage as the medals Albert’s mother would have received in the post after Albert’s death.  The medals were mounted by one of the Defence Force’s medal mounting experts, Major (Rtd) Peter Stitt, an lodged in a glass fronted presentation box.  A framed copy of Cpl. Everitt’s  Military Medal Citation was also readied for the presentation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, 16 September 2017 the Deputy Chief of Army, Brigadier Christopher J. Parsons, MNZM, DSD was on hand at the Auckland War Memorial Museum to present the medals and Citation to brothers Terry and Tony Everitt, the great nephews of 20979 Cpl. Albert Henry* Everitt, MM.  The finder of the medal, Roger McK. and his wife, families and friends of the Everitts, and officers from the 3rd Auckland (Countess of Ranfurly’s Own) and Northland Battalion Group also witnessed the presentation of the medals. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The very same Military Medal that Albert’s grieving mother Mary Ann (May) Everitt had received from Sir James Allen, then Minister of Defence, on 16 June 1919 at the Auckland Town Hall was finally reunited with Albert Everitt’s direct descendant family today, 98 years after it was presented.  In addition to the medals and Citation, MRNZ  has presented the Everitts with an engraved Memorial Plaque of the type Mrs Everitt would have received through the post whilst at 120 Nelson Street, in memory of her son.  

Footnote:  * The recent discovery of a birth record has shown that Albert Everitt was in fact born Albert “Henry” Everitt however his middle name does not appear on any military record, electoral roll, school roll or death record.

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Thanks to Jack Hayes and Peter Stitt for their very able assistance to have the medals restored and mounted, thereby making a memorable presentation to the family possible.

The reunited medal tally is now 164.