Neil Richards home 55 years after being killed in service

Fifty-five years after being killed on active duty in Malaya, Neil Richards finally lies near his father in his hometown of Whanganui.

Richards was one of 27 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel whose remains arrived back in New Zealand on Tuesday morning after decades buried in Malaysia and Singapore.

He was reinterred at a ceremony at RSA Cemetery at Aramoho on Wednesday morning.

Richards was killed in a motor accident while on active duty in Malaya in 1963. He was buried in Kuala Lumpur.

His sister Lynette, who now lives in Hastings, was in Auckland as her brother's remains arrived back in the country and came down to Whanganui with the hearse.

"It was an emotional day yesterday," she said.

About 70 people gathered at the cemetery for the reinterrment, including defence force personnel, family and friends.

Lynette said the repatriation has been a long time coming and was helped by a petition from former soldiers Paul Thomas and Andrew Peters which called on the Government to bring home the bodies of the fallen New Zealand soldiers and their children, who were buried in non-Commonwealth war cemeteries.

Neil Richards was reinterred at a ceremony in Whanganui on Wednesday. Photo/ Bevan Conley

"It was up to the New Zealand Government to right the wrongs, which has been done," she said.

Lynette said it meant a lot to the family to have her brother home.

"You have no idea," she said. "Because our Dad's just up the way there on the first row up. He can actually look down on Neil and Neil can look up to Dad."

She had visited his grave overseas previously.

"It was good but this is final. It's the final closure. And we come to Whanganui a lot from Hastings.

"We often stop here to go and see Dad and now we can see Neil which is lovely."