New Year 2026 Honours: Stanley Scott awarded King’s Service Medal

At the age of 73, Stanley Donald Scott, better known as Don, estimates he has dedicated upwards of 60 years of his life to communities around New Zealand.

Now, he has been awarded a New Year 2026 Honour, a King’s Service Medal for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Civil Defence.

Scott first joined as a volunteer firefighter with his father at the age of 12 in Ngunguru. He was a messenger and operated the hose lines.

His dedication to the work would see him continue as both a volunteer and then a paid firefighter from the age of 18. He later helped set up the “Tamatea Rural Fire Force”.

“It became my profession, and it became part of what I am, to never display panic or fear.”

He also joined Civil Defence in the 1990s in Gisborne and later became an emergency management officer with Hastings District Council in 2009, and volunteered with Civil Defence in Hokitika.

Scott, who has lived in Wairoa for 18 months, said his most memorable experience came as an 18-year-old when responding to an alarm call, and his boss pointed out his speed.

“I was driving a big V8 fire engine, and I was hammering it.

“I got back to the station, and he took me into the office, and he said, ‘Don, you’re a firefighter, you can be part of the solution...or you can be part of the problem, and it’s entirely up to you and it’s entirely how you react.’”

He said from that moment, that is how he chose to live his life as a first responder.

Scott now works in an operational support role with the Wairoa Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.