Alex Glennie had been writing to the Ministry of Defence and the government trying to get recognition for his father, Charles Alan Glennie who was a post and telegraph coastwatcher on the Chatham Islands during the war.
He said civilian coastwatchers did not receive the same recognition as most of their military counterparts despite facing the same level of risk.
"I’ve always known growing up that my father went down there during the war. I knew roughly what he did, but we didn’t know a lot of detail.
"When my father died in 2012, at 92, I had in mind that I was going to do something about it, because I knew that he’d never been recognised, so I went to him two days before he died and I asked him for an authorisation to get into his military records."
From that point, Mr Glennie started a quest to uncover the unknown history of his father, which included many trips to the naval museum in Auckland and the National Army Museum in Waiouru.
He "hounded" the ministry and the government and had a meeting with New Zealand Post chief executive David Walsh, who gave him access to documents from the time his father was in the Chathams.
Mr Glennie said his father qualified at the Post and Telegraph Radio School in Wellington and was then sent to the Mechanics Bay Flying Boat Base in Auckland for three months for further training.
He was posted to the Chatham Islands as a radio telegraphist and also manager of the flying boat base.
The steamer Holmwood was sunk near the Chatham Islands by German raiders, warships disguised as merchant vessels, in 1940.
"This service on the Chatham Islands was not only to do with the operation of the radio station and normal marine communications, but also involved monitoring German and Japanese radio communications and coast-watching duties for enemy shipping."
Mr Glennie had always been fascinated by war histories and while he knew his father made an important contribution during World War 2, he did not say much about that time of his life.
"Radio telegraphists in the day were trained to shut up, say nothing and listen.
"My father, and others like him, never went about pumping their bloody chest and telling people what they did.
"I heard snippets of it and I had to find out what happened later on though my research."
After delving into his father’s achievements, he was more sure than ever that he deserved recognition for his contributions and started a campaign for that.
He could not get a medal for his service because he was not part of the army, Mr Glennie said.
Mr Glennie could not hold his tears back during the ceremony at Government House in Wellington.
"It wasn’t until I got to Wellington that I understood.
"I’m not boasting, and I’m not skiting, and I’m not pumping my chest, but I just didn’t realise the magnitude of what I’d done.
"It involves so many other people and other families now can have the recognition for their loved ones they deserved.
"That is amazing."
Mr Glennie will donate all his research and material he gathered through the years to Invercargill City Libraries and Archives.
Looking back on his whole journey, he felt proud and humble about what he achieved and especially about his father.
"He probably wouldn’t say much - but I knew he deserved that.
"Not only my father but those men deserved a recognition."
