Patrick Bronte honoured for services to military history

Patrick Bronte, MNZM, has spent 21 years travelling New Zealand to capture and preserve more than 500 audio and video interviews with returned service men and women.

Central Hawke’s Bay-born military historian Patrick Bronte, has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to military history.

But he nearly deleted the email informing him of his nomination.

“I thought it was spam.”

“I was getting so much spam that I just looked at this new email and thought, ‘Oh, whatever’.”

Weeks later when talking to his mother, who was also receiving spam, he said, “Talking of spam, I got this one from the Governor-General’s office...”

His mother advised him to take a closer look.

“One of the best things about receiving the award is being able to give back to my parents - how better can a kid do that? It’s a great way to repay them for everything I put them through. If Dad was alive today, he’d be prouder than I am.”

Patrick, who now lives in Palmerston North, grew up in Central Hawke’s Bay, where he suffered a life-changing accident at the age of 16.

He was swimming in Waipukurau’s Tukituki River with friends on December 27, 1996, when a misplaced dive into a swimming hole left him a tetraplegic, with “just enough movement in one hand to operate a wheelchair”.

After extensive rehabilitation and a return home to Waipukurau, Patrick’s recovery - and a life-long passion - was inspired by the stories told by local war veterans. He began recording their stories for posterity.

In the beginning, he was using a basic handycam, with help to operate the camera.

He now uses a mouth stick to operate far more sophisticated technology, and has produced a website, Ngā Toa, to make his interviews freely available to the public.

Patrick founded the Ngā Toa Charitable Trust in 2018, which has contributed to remembrance activities, museum exhibitions, commemorating fallen soldiers and providing material for New Zealand authors and international publications.

He is now expanding the archive to include more recent conflicts in Africa, East Timor, Bosnia and Afghanistan, and has been part of a push for a national Armed Forces Day to recognise all military personnel who have served in campaigns, including more recent conflicts.

He is currently collaborating with historians to develop an app that utilises augmented reality to provide an immersive experience for children to help them learn about the service of New Zealand veterans.

But Patrick sees his MNZM as belonging as much to the veterans who have inspired him as it does to himself.

“There should be an award for those who are doing the good work to support veterans.

“I’m just doing my thing, and I’m grateful to the veterans who have enabled me to contribute and to keep contributing. The interviews have led to lots of other opportunities; books, documentaries and the augmented reality app for intermediate-age students, which will be released this Anzac Day.

“But none of this could have got off the ground without the immense support of the Central Hawke’s Bay community, especially the war veterans’ community.

“For example, CHB College - where I was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, despite that when I attended, I was not a good student. After my accident, Mrs Ballantyne, who ran the college’s Duke of Edinburgh scheme, took me through the scheme, and I gained my gold Duke of Edinburgh award.

“Based on the amount needed to gain that award and the restrictions I had, it’s one of my proudest achievements. I was the first person with my degree of disability to achieve it, and all through CHB College.

“To get my service hours up for the scheme, I was hanging out with some local service veterans and older community members, hearing their stories. It was a small beginning to what I eventually got into.”

Patrick says he has had invaluable support from Central Hawke’s Bay’s service veteran community, including successive presidents of the Waipukurau and Districts RSA.

“Our veterans are being very well looked after by Waipukurau and Districts RSA president Janet Castell MNZM, who is also the vice-president of the RNZRSA.

“Janet was the first woman officer to lead New Zealand troops on an overseas exercise. When Janet congratulated me, it meant a lot, given her military experience.

“The support from these people - a lot of whom are gone now - means everything to me. Waipukurau is where my roots are and where I came by the understanding of how important it was to do this work.

“My old primary school, Terrace School in Waiukurau, has always been ready to help, and I have been able to test the new the augmented reality app on the students. I’ve had some health challenges over the past couple of years that could have been overwhelming, but the app was something I could work on from bed, writing electronically.

“I want to thank Central Hawke’s Bay. This award honours the community.

“Other people see what I do as inspirational. I don’t recognise my disability, I’m not inspirational - it’s the people I’ve met, the veterans. They’re inspirational.”