Posthumous presentation of war medals

PROUD MOMENT: Rob Zaagman, Dutch Ambassador, and sisters Kahrin McEvoy-Roberts and Alex Goodwin, daughters of Mr Warners.PHOTO/ SUPPLIED

A Wanganui family have got closure on a major part of their heritage with the posthumous presentation of war medals to their father.

Alex Goodwin's father Johan Frederik Warners served in the Dutch Royal Navy during World War II in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and after the war continued serving as the Dutch battled insurgents in the area until 1952.

And last month she and her sister Kahrin McEvoy-Roberts and some of their family were guests of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Wellington to receive medals awarded posthumously to their father.

Mrs Goodwin said Dutch veterans were entitled to the medals for their war service but her father's recognition only came after she had applied for a war pension for her mother.

She said she had wanted to research more about her father "because he didn't talk at all about his war experience".

"He wasn't a hero or anything like but rather we wanted to know more."

Johan Warners was working in Indonesia when war broke out and he went on to serve as a radio operator in the Dutch Royal Navy.

At the presentation of the medals at the embassy in Wellington last month, Ambassador Rob Zaagman said the Dutch navy played a prominent role during the war in Europe and the Far East.

Mr Zaagman presented the family with two medals. The first, the Mobilisation War Cross, is awarded to people who served on active duty in the Dutch armed forces between April, 1939 and September, 1945.

"For a long time, Dutch people didn't realise that many soldiers were eligible for the war cross. That's why, after all these years, it's still being awarded to veterans. Importantly, the medal can also be awarded posthumously.

"It was a very difficult time, because the Netherlands was occupied by Germany and the Dutch East Indies by Japan but the fight went on until these lands were liberated," he said.

The second medal was the Star for Order and Peace and presented to those who served at least three months as members of the Dutch armed forces between September, 1945 and June, 1951.

The awards ceremony also included a surprise visit from members of the Dutch Royal Marines and Royal Dutch Navy who were in the capital.