The first George Medal awarded to a New Zealand woman has been returned to the Police Museum in Porirua after taking pride of place at a family reunion.
The medal was awarded to Eva Helen Dickson (known as Helen) for her actions during the Aramoana massacre in November 1990.
One of Helen’s sons, Lindsay Dickson, gave the medal to the Police Museum last year, but borrowed it so generations of the family were able to get a glimpse of the family artefact during the Dickson family reunion.
Mrs Dickson died in 2007, aged 87.
Mr Dickson returned the medal to the museum last week and was joined by two Invercargill officers, Senior Constable Steve Dalton and Sergeant A.J. Harris, who were part of the Invercargill armed offenders squad team at Aramoana.
On November 13, 1990, Helen was living in the small seaside town of Aramoana when David Malcolm Gray fatally shot his neighbour Garry Holden and two children, and wounded one other child, before setting Mr Holden’s house on fire and going on a shooting rampage.
Mrs Dickson heard the shots and went to investigate their source, when she saw smoke coming from a neighbour’s house.
Another resident, Chris Cole, was also going to investigate the shots when Gray appeared and began firing at them.
Mr Cole was wounded.Mrs Dickson had two artificial hips and restricted arm movements after surgery at the time of the tragedy. Despite this, she was able to help Mr Cole to the roadside, where they both fell to the ground.
He was seriously wounded and unable to move any further.
Mrs Dickson courageously crawled about 100m on her stomach to a telephone booth to call police and an ambulance. She crawled back to the wounded man and comforted him while they waited for help to arrive.
Concerned at the length of time it was taking for medical aid to arrive, she crawled back to her home and made further calls to emergency services.
Throughout the night, Mrs Dickson continued to update police on what was happening, all the time unaware that James Dickson, one of her sons, had been fatally shot.
Police were eventually able to rescue Mrs Dickson and Mr Cole, who later died from his wounds.
Snr Const Dalton and Sgt Harris were among the first officers to check on Mrs Dickson after Gray was shot and arrested.
They were delighted to be able to share their thoughts and memories of her with Mr Dickson as they received the medal on behalf of the Police Museum last week, a police spokeswoman said.
The officers recalled that after the siege was over, Mrs Dickson invited them inside for a cold drink. They lined their rifles up along her veranda and relaxed for a while while she rustled up cold drinks.
They described her as delightful and tough. She took great comfort from the friendly AOS members from Invercargill and she always referred to them as her "Invercargill Johnnies".
Mr Dickson presented his mother’s medal to the New Zealand Police Museum in Porirua last year.
It was nearly lost to the family after the medal went missing from the Port Chalmers Museum in the late 2000s in a suspected theft.
It was later found in a cupboard in the museum’s office, after apparently being returned after word of its theft spread.
