KEY POINTS:
Tucked away forgotten in a hospital backroom, the mementoes commemorating one of New Zealand's great war heroes lay gathering dust.
The plaque and photograph of Lance Corporal David Russell, whose unflinching gallantry saved countless lives but cost him his own, had taken pride of place for decades at Napier Hospital, where he worked before marching off to World War II.
But when the hospital was closed in 1997 they were packed away with other historic material.
One day, fossicking through the archives, former laundry manager Jeff Haines came across Lance Corporal Russell's plaque and "took a shine to it". After researching the story of the escaped prisoner of war posthumously awarded a George Cross, Mr Haines decided Lance Corporal Russell's memory deserved more than to be left forgotten in a box.
He approached the Hawkes Bay District Health Board chaplain, Heather Flavell, and they arranged for the plaque and photograph to be hung in the Fallen Soldiers Memorial Chapel in Hawkes Bay Hospital at a ceremony several years ago.
"[Mr Haines] spotted the plaque and rescued it for us," said Mrs Flavell.
Lance Corporal Russell appears in 100 Heroes, a special three-part Herald series starting today. The series, which features military and civilian men, women and children, was prompted by the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Corporal Willie Apiata.
While the nation has celebrated Corporal Apiata's bravery with several ceremonies, the fate of Lance Corporal Russell's relics serves as a reminder of how we must remember our heroes' courage not just now, but for generations to come.
Lance Corporal Russell, killed by a firing squad after refusing to succumb to Nazi interrogators, had come to Hawkes Bay in the late 1930s. He had left his homeland in Scotland as a young man and been a swagman in Australia for several years before becoming a hospital orderly in 1938.
In 1940 he left for war, never to return.
After the awarding of the George Cross in 1948, his hospital colleagues installed the plaque in a corridor. His family donated the medal to the Army Museum in Waiouru, where it is on permanent display.
Speaking of heroes such as Lance Corporal Russell and Corporal Apiata, Mr Haines said: "It's important to remember their courage. There's spur of the moment courage like what [Corporal Apiata] did, and then there's what this guy [Lance Corporal Russell] did. He was behind enemy lines for a long time. He was a one of a kind."
