War medals on show in Te Awamutu

A wartime medal has gone on display in Te Awamutu – just two years after being stolen from the town’s museum.

The Queen’s South Africa medal won by George Osborne in 1902 is a highlight of an exhibition featuring more than 40 medals.

Te Awamutu Museum is using its ‘Symbols of Service’ exhibition to promote its war medals after the theft of 26 of them was discovered two years ago.

The missing medals were first noticed when a historian contacted the museum about a Te Awamutu medal he had bought on the open market in 2009. It turned out to be George Osborne’s Queen’s South Africa medal that was recorded on the museum’s database.

This led to a thorough audit and it was discovered that 26 medals were missing.

The thefts were reported to the police and a person was subsequently convicted in relation to some of them.
Waipa District Council museum and heritage director Jan White said some medals had been recovered and they were watching for any more that may come up for sale on the international market.

She said additional security measures, including more regular and random auditing, had been taken since the discovery of the thefts.

The museum believes publicity about the stolen medals along with these new measures will discourage further thefts, and help reassure people whose medals are in their collection.

Senior curator Stephanie Lambert said it was the thefts that motivated her to put on the exhibition.

“The thefts left us with a feeling of real concern that things in collections are seen as commodities rather than as touchstones for memories and stories, which is our intention when collecting them.

“We deal on a personal basis with servicemen here and putting on an exhibition that touches on their contributions was really important for us – to make a stand and show what those medals stood for.

“I just wanted to do anything I could to put pressure on to reverse that trend, even if it was just in our little community here.”

All the medals on display are from people with connections to the Waipa district and some date back to 1863.
Exhibition highlights include George Osborne’s Queen’s South Africa medal , the rare New Zealand Cross medal awarded to Henry Northcroft, and the group of 14 medals belonging to long time military servant Caro Pierce.

The exhibition runs until May 2.

A version of this story was first published in the Te Awamutu Courier.