'Reckless disregard of safety' praised

BARBARA WITHINGTON/141476

EARNED HIS MEDALS: Captain John Ward MC and his wife Phyllis, who attended Anzac services in Central Otago at the weekend.

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Captain John Ward MC may have served in the Australian Army, but he is recognised as New Zealand's most decorated serviceman.

Living in Millers Flat for the past 20 years, Mr Ward was one of only three World War II veterans at the Anzac commemorations in the Teviot Valley this year.

Joining up first as a 19-year-old in 1940, he was sent home "to grow up" before rejoining six months later.

Serving in the Pacific for the next four years, he was in New Britain, at Aoniaru when his platoon was first asked to take out an enemy bunker. Forced to withdraw after running out of ammunition, having killed one Japanese and driving out two more, they returned two days later and were successful.

His Military Cross citation concludes his "tenacity, devotion to duty and reckless disregard of safety was directly responsible for the capture of the enemy feature."

First presented while he was still in New Britain, his medal was to have been presented officially by King George VI, "but he died and it had to be the Governor General instead."

He had earlier spent time in New Guinea including the Kokoda Track campaign.

In the Australian reserves from the end of World War II, Mr Ward was then part of the Korean campaign among others, adding to his array of medals, while on his other lapel he wears the American Presidential Citation, the equivalent of a unit Victoria Cross.

Mr Ward continued in a training capacity until he returned to civilian life in 1955.

- © Fairfax NZ News