A 10-year campaign to get New Zealand recognition for the resident of a small Dutch village has finally succeeded.
The New Zealand ambassador to the Netherlands, Rachel Fry, will tomorrow deliver a letter from New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to 70-year-old retired shoemaker Johan Verhagen, of Krabbendijke.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said Mr Verhagen would be thanked for his dedication to the memory of New Zealand's war dead over many years.
George Barton QC, who was born in Dunedin but has lived in Wellington for many years, said yesterday the letter from the Prime Minister was the outcome his family had been seeking for 10 years.
Mr Barton's brother, James, who was born in Gore, died during World War 2 when the Royal Air Force Lancaster bomber of which he was navigator crashed near Mr Verhagen's village.
Also killed was New Zealand pilot Colin Marriott, who was credited with guiding the stricken plane away from the village.
Mr Verhagen, a schoolboy at the time, had over the years gathered comprehensive records of all wartime crashes in the Netherlands, visited schools in the area to educate children about the sacrifices that had been made, and helped maintain memorials.
He had also sought out the relatives of those who were killed and hosted them on visits to Holland.
Mr Barton said Mr Verhagen was a modest man and was "greatly thrilled" at the prospect of receiving the letter.
