WWI MYSTERY AT BOATMANS

This narrative began 20 years ago when the late Vince O'Regan found a World War I British War Medal while digging the foundation for a new water tank at his homestead in Cronadun that was built in 1913 by his grandfather. After showing it to his wife, Jo-ann O'Regan and son Paddy, it was put in a drawer, and when remembered, pulled out, polished and put back. "We always felt the medal never belonged with us, that it had a family it belonged to," Paddy says. A few years later, Paddy, while doing a research project on his great-grandfather on his mum's side, who was also in WWI, inquired about the medal. All he discovered was that the medal was awarded to William Percy Hubbuck, that he was from Westport, went to France and married in the United Kingdom. "In terms of trying to track down a family member from someone who died 80 years ago it was like, where do you start?" Paddy reflects. So they just hung onto the medal until one day last June, Jo-ann saw an advert for the TVNZ programme 'My Family Mystery'. "Mum asked me if perhaps they could track down a family member for the medal, so I sent them an email and within a week they replied and seemed very keen to do the story from the get go." Enter Ian Martyn: "I had already done a returned medals episode on the first series of the show, so the producer contacted me to research Paddy's medal. For each episode of the series the producer consults all the expertise they can find to solve the mystery." From the starting point of a number, rank, initial, and NZEF (NZ Expeditionary Force) that are impressed on the edge of the medals, Ian was eventually able to establish — through lots of research, trial and error messages on websites and phone calls — that Hubbuck was born on January 5, 1876 in Lambton, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. A brief history of Hubbuck's army record: He came to New Zealand circa 1900-04 and was employed as a labourer in the vicinity of Westport, Inangahua Landing and in Capleston, where he also had mining privileges. By 1911 he was labouring at Murchison and in 1914 was resident at Addisons Flat. Hubbuck also played rugby for Braeburn RFC during his time at Addisons. He enlisted at Westport and joined the NZEF on January 12, 1916, aged 39 years and eight months, and named his next of kin as Jim Wall of Mills Street, Westport. He lied about his age, saying he was born in 1878 as the cut-off to enlist was 40 years. He was wounded in the shoulders, returned to NZ and was discharged in 1918 (just after he was married in London). Hubbuck returned to Westport and labouring, then to Cronadun to farm. After the arrival of his bride Alice in November 1918, the couple remained in Westport until moving to Cronadun about 1924. In 1930 at the Reefton Poultry Show awards, he won a cup for having the largest cat. Bill married three times — Mary Ann Avery in Newcastle, Alice Maud Davies (UK) and Edith Nightingale Bartholemew in Reefton. The latter two ladies were both widows. Edith was residing on the Coast. He had no children, but widowed Edith, before marrying Bill, had a son and two daughters. Her son Sydney Bartholemew was sadly killed at the Denniston Breakhead in 1922, aged 16. Scott Hubbuck had no idea about his great-grand uncle. "The first I heard about him was when Ian Martyn Facebook messaged me about a month ago. I thought it was a scam at first," he laughs. "I got this random Facebook message asking me who I was and who my parents were. I thought it was someone gleaning me for my personal information." After having convinced Scott it was not a scam, there was a whirlwind to try to work out where Bill fitted into the family. TVNZ then flew Scott to New Zealand from Newcastle on the day of filming. Bill Hubbuck's grave and headstone at Boatmans Cemetery was covered in lichen and moss with the writing on the headstone worn completely off. There was a scramble to get it tidy and ready for filming, so a week before, Allan Archer, who owns a house and land that surrounds the cemetery, scrubbed it with a Janola solution to loosen the lichen. Brian McIntyre then came a couple of days later to refurbish it. On the eve of filming, on August 28, the film crew of four arrived to stay at Dawsons Hotel and, with a captive audience, interviewed several people in relation to Hubbuck, asking if they had heard of him or about him. The answer was no in every instance. Then Friday arrived with overcast weather and some drizzle every now and then. Ian Martyn set about preparing Hubbuck's headstone by draping it with a New Zealand flag and brushing off any leaves and debris. The filming went off without a hitch, and there were even tears from a few of the participants as Scott accepted the medal from Paddy. "It was a touching ceremony, and the way the bugle of Ross Hall just echoed down the valley was really moving," Paddy said. Hubbuck's grave did not qualify for Commonwealth War Graves maintenance so it will fall back on relatives to maintain it. "Not that Paddy will let it go, he will probably look after it as his own from now on," Ian says. Paddy: "It was always a mystery as to how the medal of a man from Westport ended up in our backyard, but as it turns out he was a local, buried in the Boatmans Cemetery. He was there the whole time and we never knew ..."