Brothers Antony Stubbs, left, and Alister Stubbs are thrilled their father has received a posthumous war medal
Young Antony Stubbs used to fear invasion.
His father, 2nd Lieutenant Trevor Stubbs of the King Country Home Guard, and his mates were left without rifles to defend New Zealand after they were handed in to help with the war effort.
This left Stubbs and his Home Guard mates to substitute rifles with broom handles and manuka poles for parades.
“They would parade at Marakopa and Dad would come home and tell us that Marakopa was ‘Home Guarded’,” the 86-year-old remembers.
“They were dead scared about the Japanese coming,” adds his younger brother Alister, 84.
The Stubbs hill country farm, Awatiro, off Te Anga Road, formerly occupied by Trevor’s parents Hugh and Harriet was a perfect base of operations, with views out to the potential enemy landing sites on the West Coast and around the North Island.
The pair can remember their father positioning their old Ford V8 pick-up truck to use the headlights for sending messages in Morse code to his Home Guard brothers in arms. It was a Kiwi version of the warning beacons that had served Britain so well down the centuries.
Tank traps were also installed to halt, or at least slow, an invading force and 2nd Lieutenant Stubbs was trained in their deployment. There was one on the road leading to the farm, and more around the district.
If the enemy ever landed, the Home Guard would rely on Awatiro Farm as a base of operations, packing out a remote cave with provisions packed in tins lined with foil.
The Home Guard was formed in August 1940 under the Emergency Corps Regulations when New Zealanders feared an invasion of the Japanese Empire in the Second World War.
The British version was popularised by the long running situation comedy Dad’s Army which replaced the local militias of old.
The brothers remember huddling daily around the radio with their father and mother Madge.
“They would walk in at the end of the day and turn the radio on and at six o’clock we would hear Big Ben striking,”
They would hear news of how the war was going for the allies in Europe and other parts of the world.
“We did not know was going to happen,” Alister said.
He also listened in to the nightly news with his twin brother Graeme and their whanau from their old hill country farmhouse.
Their parents are long gone now, and the farmhouse was later destroyed in a fire, taking many mementos with them. But the fifth generation of Stubbs continues to work and live off the land.
Nearly 80 years after the war ended, Trevor has been recognised by the New Zealand Defence with a posthumous New Zealand War Service Medal for his service.
Antony applied for the medal after Hangitiki military history expert Ross O’Halloran asked Antony’s nephew, Angus Stubbs, whether his grandfather had ever been decorated.
“Many people who did Home Service didn’t realise that if they had completed a certain amount of time, they were eligible for the NZ 1939-45 war service medal,” O’Halloran said.
O’Halloran has also supplied the family with the appropriate military pins to replace the ones lost in the fire late last century.
So, how would Trevor have reacted to the award?
“He would be overwhelmed, really thrilled,” Antony said.
“He was pretty interested when I did my compulsory military training in 1957.”
“He would be really humbled,” Alister said.
