NINEY-TWO years after a Far North soldier lost his army dog tags on one of France's bloodiest battlefields, they are about to begin their long journey back to his family in New Zealand.
Richard Kemp's World War 1 tags were found last year by 6-year-old French schoolgirl Zoe Corselle, buried on
the Somme where 2000 New Zealand soldiers died and 7000 were wounded in a bloody 23-day battle.
The little girl, from the town of Albert, was on a school trip to the Somme battlefield and found the weather-beaten tags buried in the soil. She and her father took them to the New Zealand embassy in Paris for help in tracing the soldier's family.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage tracked down Mr Kemp's descendants and the tags were presented in France yesterday to associate minister Mahara Okeroa, who will bring them back to New Zealand and present them to the family.
Mr Kemp, also known as Richard Keepa, lost the dog tags in France and returned to New Zealand after the war. He died in the 1960s and was buried in Te Kao.
His only son, also Richard Kemp, divides his time between England and Thailand and had yet to be contacted about the find, said Mr Kemp's great-niece, Philippa McDonald, who lives in Wellington.
She said the family would wait until they had contacted Mr Kemp before a decision was made on the future of the tags.
Mrs McDonald said the family was overwhelmed by the news they had been found and were being returned,
"We were amazed and very grateful to the people who found the tags, and then took the time and trouble to help trace the family and to arrange to have them handed back to us.
"We were overwhelmed really."
She said the family would be thrilled if the little girl could come to New Zealand to be part of the handing over.
Mr Kemp, from the Te Aupouri iwi, came from Te Kao and enlisted in the Wellington Infantry Battalion. The ministry's chief historian, Bronwyn Dally, said she was trying to get his military records but he probably served in Gallipoli before heading to the Western Front in 1916. NZPA
