Rotorua man marks Armistice Day and 96th birthday

On November 11, 1918, Joseph Henry Terry, was freed from the German prisoner of war camp he was in for part of World War I.

Four years later, in 1922, his son Joseph Acton Trevor Terry was born.

Yesterday, on Armistice Day the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the younger Terry marked his 96th birthday at Bupa Redwood Retirement Village.

While Terry never served overseas and his father was reluctant to talk about the war, his father's collection of medals are close to him.

"They are very important to me.

"World War I was the major conflict of the time."

Though Terry's daughter Karen Bourke never knew her grandfather, she helped her father recollect.

Joseph Terry with his daughter Karen Bourke and his father's medals. Photo / Ben Fraser

"We've always tried to make his birthday special. He's never been one to like to celebrate but he is proud of the fact he was born on the 11th of the 11th, Armistice Day."

Terry's father served as a rifleman in the trenches of Passchendaele.

"The British gassed the Germans but the wind changed so all these guys were gassed by their own side. That's when they got captured and he was in a prisoner of war camp in Germany," Bourke said.

She still has a German-English dictionary Terry Sr had during his time in the camp.

"It was hell on earth. I think they all came back with major trauma. Because his father had been gassed he had a lot of health problems later in life."

Terry followed in his father's footsteps. He was a staff sergeant at the army camp at Ngaruawahia. He wasn't allowed to go overseas due to medical reasons.

"There was no way his father would have wanted him to anyway," Bourke said.

"I always remember him saying if he could have his father would have stopped him anyway because of his memories in the trenches."