Ian Hart was 18 when he enlisted and served with the Australian Army in the Pacific region during World War II.
Now, 100-years-old, the Brisbane-born veteran has finally been awarded medals, eight decades after his service.
Hart enlisted in 1944 and was posted to the 11th Australian Small Ships Company, a water transport unit responsible for moving troops through the Pacific and was on board the TSMV Blackwood.
The ship travelled Australia to Borneo and Papua New Guinea before it became stuck on a reef.
“[We’d been] travelling in the dark and the ship became stuck on a reef upright … they sent an SOS,” Hart recalled.
The crew were forced to abandon ship and were eventually rescued by an American Cargo Ship. He believes that this was the reason why his service was not updated.
Hart learned by chance that his Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) records did not match his service and even explained that he had spent more than six months overseas.
“It wasn’t terribly exciting, I just applied for my veteran card and they said I hadn’t been overseas,” he recalled.
While he was eventually awarded a veterans’ gold card, he had never received his medals and would wear replicas to wear during Anzac and Remembrance Day services.
Hart, who lives independently on Tamborine Mountain in Queensland, only told his family last month that he had never received his official medals.
Hart’s youngest daughter, Tina Fulton-Kennedy, said she initially did not believe him.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh, he’s 100, he’s losing it,'” she said.
After he told her about the replica medals, his daughter immediately contacted the local RSL sub-branch, with members helping him verify his service and reapply for his 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.”
After 80 years of wearing replica medals, Hart 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,” Hart said.
“It’s nice to have the same medals as all the other [veterans] so we can all remember together.”
Image: RSL Queensland
