Lost war medals turn up in the most unlikely places as historian and freelance journalist Chris Gardner found recently.
Dennis Dempsey’s New Zealand Memorial Cross has been found more than 80 years after it was lost during his final training exercise.
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.
Dennis Dempsey
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 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.”
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 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 keeps me off the streets and out of the bars and gives me an interest,” he said.
“It’s taken over my life now.”
Te Awamutu’s Denise Jones has been reunited with her late uncle’s New Zealand Memorial Cross.
