He carried an injured Gurkha for 54 hours through thick jungle and swamp. He then hid the wounded soldier and later returned with a search party. Lieutenant Colonel John Milbanke Masters was named as New Zealand's inaugural Anzac of the Year, an award recognising comradeship, courage and commitment.
It was recognition of a life in which Masters put others first, from life-saving deeds on the battlefields of Indonesia, which earned him a Military Cross, to campaigning for the rights of Vietnam War veterans exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange.
