A Nelson-based World War II pilot who cheated death many times on wartime raids over Europe, now feels cheated out of a government-subsidised plaque for a headstone.
Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
London-born John Beeching, 93, flew with the Royal Air Force and has lived in New Zealand for more than 60 years, becoming a New Zealand citizen 35 years ago.
Last year,new legislation formed in 2014 kicked in and Veterans' Affairs New Zealand stopped taking applications for plaques and headstones from Commonwealth veterans, moving to limiting them to New Zealand veterans.
Retired serviceman Ian Martyn has taken up the cause for Mr Beeching. He and a small group of Nelsonians have pitched in and will pay the several hundred dollars for the bronze plaque they feel Mr Beeching deserves.
"The irony really is, if he had died on the 31st of June last year he would have got a plaque. If he'd died a day later when the legislation was altered he wouldn't have, which is really ridiculous," Mr Martyn said.
Mr Beeching works as a part-time handiman at Nelson's Cawthron Institute. He was not angry as much as bemused by what he said was petty bureaucracy.
"I mean let's face it - it's only a lump of bronze on a tombstone, but it's the idea behind the thing. [The government] spent millions of dollars on that useless flag business, and they're arguing about this nit-picking thing here."
Mr Beeching said he was not the first to have been caught out by the change. He is patron of the local Returned and Services Association, which recently helped a family also affected.
Mr Martyn does not imagine there are many surviving Commonwealth veterans, and the department could have handled it better.
"It would have been quite easy to say, 'All right, we want to change this - we can't go on forever. Let's let those World War II veterans have the benefit of this, and once the last passes away, then we'll enact the changes to legislation then'," he said.
A Veterans' Affairs spokesperson said the legislation did not provide for entitlements to veterans of any armed forces other than those of New Zealand, but there was significant public consultation before the legislation was passed.
"Veterans' Affairs therefore has no legal authority to fund plaques for veterans other than those New Zealand veterans who are eligible for this because of the particular service they have taken part in.
"While Veterans Affairs is not able to assist veterans who have served in Commonwealth armed forces, it may be that those veterans' home countries could have a similar arrangement to that which is in place in New Zealand, and be able to fund memorials for their veterans regardless of where in the world they may be interred.
A review of the operation of the Act is being undertaken this year, the department spokesman said.
It was not Mr Beeching's first run-in with Veterans' Affairs.
In 2012 he was dropped from an official New Zealand veterans delegation that went to London for the unveiling of a Bomber Command memorial because he did not belong to the Royal New Zealand Air Force when serving.
Again the Nelson public rallied and raised the money needed to get him there and back.
Mr Beeching flew Mosquito fighter bombers with the RAF's 169 Special Duties Night Fighter Squadron. His strongest memory was not any near-death experience, but getting back to the mess and having a couple of beers.
"We flew long operations over Germany - up to six hours some of them and in the Mosquito that's a long way. It took us to the borders of Czechoslovakia and back, so it was a long way."
Mr Beeching was not sure where his final resting place might be - he said he would be happy to have his ashes scattered over Tasman Bay, but he intended to pay homage to a favourite comedian Spike Milligan, by having his infamous epitaph engraved on his plaque: "I told you I was ill."
Mr Beeching said he was fighting fit and looking forward to his 94th birthday in October this year.
