By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter
The Prime Minister yesterday unveiled a plaque commemorating the "Lion of Crete", two years after she visited his grave and the place where he was ambushed and killed.
The Lion was New Zealand soldier Dudley Perkins, who was recommended for a Victoria Cross but passed over because
his courage was not witnessed by a British officer.
The plaque Helen Clark unveiled at the New Zealand Greek Memorial in Wellington commemorates Mr Perkins' exploits in organising resistance on the island against occupying German forces in World War II.
Known as "Vasili", Mr Perkins was captured by the Germans in the 1941 invasion and subsequently escaped back to Egypt.
So impressed were the Allies with his exploits in evading capture that he was asked to go back to help organise the partisan movement fighting the Germans.
He was smuggled back to Crete as a British secret service agent in 1943.
Mr Perkins felt he owed something to the islanders who had helped and sheltered him while on the run.
He continued organising and fighting until shot in an ambush by a large German patrol in February 1944.
When Helen Clark visited Crete in 2001 she went to his graveside in Suda Bay, and was guided to the ambush site in the White Mountains.
She outlined the story of Vasili to a small crowd at yesterday's ceremony.
The group included his friends and family as well as representatives from the military of both New Zealand and Greece.
Mr Perkins' only living brother, Neville, was 16 when he was killed.
He said yesterday it was a special and "very emotional" day for him and the rest of the family.
Neville's grandchildren and Dudley's grand-niece and nephew, Juliet Sewell, 10, and Jonathan Sewell, 7, laid flowers beneath the plaque during the ceremony.
Above the plaque, embedded in the wall, is a piece of stone from the White Mountains of Crete.
His plaque reads in part: "His acts of bravery, integrity and compassion are legend."
