Ronin stood during Dunedin’s dawn service at the cenotaph in Queens Gardens with his grandfather Mal Parker’s medals, received for more than three decades’ service in the police force.
Mr Parker was a longtime Dunedin police officer, who retired in 2014.
He retired just shy of reaching 40 years with the force.
His son, and Ronin’s father, Mitch Parker, said his father would be ‘‘tickled pink’’ his grandson was wearing his medals.
Ronin was wearing his grandfather’s medals, which included a Courageous Service Award from the United Nations.
His grandfather was awarded that medal for his actions in East Timor in March 2008.
Mere weeks before he was due to return to Dunedin following a six-month tour in East Timor, he was with a United Nations group waiting to cross a rapidly rising river.
A man attempting to cross the raging river on a horse was tipped off into the torrent and, without thinking, Mr Parker saved the struggling man from being pulled under water.
He waded out to the man and helped him to stay above water, falling himself, but persevering while the man struggled.
Mr Parker eventually dragged the man to safety at the edge of the water.
• At the Montecillo Veterans Home & Hospital 11am service, Philip Shum, his father Allan Shum, granddaughter Ivy Roux, 8, and his wife’s cousin, Christine Wong, all gathered to pay their respects.
Philip Shum wore his father-in-law William ‘‘Willie McWong’’ Wong’s medals, earned serving in World War 2.
Mr Wong was one of only two Chinese men to serve as pilots in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the only Chinese man to become a member of the 2nd Scottish Regiment — hence the nickname.
‘‘He was in the army and then he transferred over to the air force as a flying officer,’’ Philip Shum said.
There was a mural dedicated to some of Dunedin’s heroes in which Mr Wong was depicted, which Ivy loved to go and see, he said.
After the service, they went to visit his grave and laid some flowers for him.
It would have been his 105th birthday on Saturday.
