A few years ago now, the British Government announced a 10,000-00 pound award to former prisoners of war of the Japanese, matched here in NZ by the NZ Government. I was approached by a former merchant seaman whom I had known for some years and had never heard him mention the fact that he had spent three years working as a POW in Japan, but wanted advice on how to make a claim.All NZ ships at that time were considered British, so he qualified for the UK payment rather than that from NZ, so I did all the homework and obtained the correct paperwork from the British High Commission in Wellington, and within a matter of days he had his 10,000-00 in the bank.
He then asked if I could help a fellow shipmate living in Auckland, so I repeated the exercise though he sadly died before the payment was made to his widow. I thought no more of it until some weeks later when I received a beautifully hand-written note from the 80-year-old widow and enclosing a $50-00 note "to buy yourself a beer".
Some days are truly memorable!
