100yo soldier gets medals recognising service eight decades on

A 100-year-old veteran who served with the Australian Army in the Pacific during World War II has been awarded medals for his service eight decades later.

Ian Hart said it was by chance he discovered that Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) records did not match his service.

"It wasn't terribly exciting, I just applied for my veteran card and they said I hadn't been overseas," Mr Hart said.

Mr Hart said he explained to the DVA that he had in fact spent more than the required six months overseas.

In 1944 at age 18, the Brisbane-born man pushed back against his parents' hopes he would spend six months jackarooing after high school, instead enlisting.

He was posted to the 11th Australian Small Ships Company, a water transport unit responsible for moving troops through the Pacific.

The TSMV Blackwood travelled from Australia to Borneo and Papua New Guinea before eventually running aground.

"[We'd been] travelling in the dark and the ship became stuck on a reef upright … they sent an SOS," Mr Hart said.

The crew, forced to abandon ship, were eventually rescued by an American cargo ship.

Mr Hart believes it was this interaction that led to his service not being updated, and although he was eventually awarded a veterans' gold card about 20 years ago, he never received medals.

Correcting the record

The 100-year-old, who lives independently on Tamborine Mountain in the Scenic Rim inland from the Gold Coast, only notified his family last month that he had been without official medals for 80 years.

Mr Hart's youngest daughter, Tina Fulton-Kennedy, said she initially did not believe her father.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh, he's 100, he's losing it,'" she said.

Ms Fulton-Kennedy said her father told her he had purchased replica medals to wear in the decades since serving, prompting her to contact Mr Hart's local RSL sub-branch.

Members sprung to action, helping to verify his service and apply to the DVA for medals.

"It all happened so quickly, the medals arrived within 10 days and then we went to Parliament House [for the presentation]," she said.

"Dad is very proud and he didn't think he deserved to be there … going to war is such a sacrifice and he's just so humble."

Recognition eight decades in the making

Serving for Australia runs in Mr Hart's blood, he says, recalling stories of his father Sir Byrne Hart's service in WWI, which earned him a Military Cross.

After 80 years of wearing replica medals during ANZAC and Remembrance Day services, the Queenslander now has five medals to signify his service, including 245 days of active overseas service and 622 days of active service in Australia.

"I bought the complementary ones, but they'd gone to bits, and now they're being replaced with proper medals I can wear full-time," Mr Hart said.

"It's nice to have the same medals as all the other [veterans] so we can all remember together."