Two war medals associated with the family of one of Northland’s most significant historic buildings returned home over the weekend.

The British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal – both awarded to Trevor Clendon Millar for his service during World War I – were presented to family and staff members of Clendon House at Rawene and will be added to the Clendon House collection.

The two medals acknowledge Trevor Clendon Millar’s role as a medic with the New Zealand Medical Corp where he served in a Field Ambulance unit in France.

Once Trevor Clendon Millar’s home, Clendon House today is a Tohu Whenua and has been cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga since it was purchased by its predecessor, the NZ Historic Places Trust, in 1972.

For David Clendon and his siblings growing up in the 1960s, however, Clendon House was simply Aunty Marge and Uncle Trevor’s house.

“Like many of his generation, Uncle Trevor didn’t talk much about his war experiences,” says David, who is also the Northland Regional Coordinator for Tohu Whenua.

“We didn’t really know what he had gone through during the War, though his military record shows a man who was doing his duty in the face of constant danger.”

While he was in France, Trevor Clendon Millar served in 1 Field Ambulance, which was not a vehicle, but rather a front-line unit of around 250 personnel which treated men injured in battle.

Stretcher bearers collected men from the battlefield and carried them to first-aid posts near the front lines where they were treated by regimental medical officers. If patients needed further treatment they were transported via casualty clearing stations to hospitals away from the lines.

Although not serving as combatants as such, they were still working at the front line in the thick of the fighting according to David.

“Uncle Trevor’s military records show that he suffered a bad gunshot wound in the leg in 1917 which basically ended his service, and he was eventually shipped home after that,” he says.

“That’s not the end of the story, however. It seems that Uncle Trevor volunteered to serve again in 1940 after the Second World War broke out, though his enlistment was cancelled because he was over age.”

The medals were presented to Clendon House by the grand-daughter of Trevor Clendon Millar, Susan Millar and her son Adam. Both are based in Perth and are currently visiting New Zealand.

The medals will join other collection items relating to Trevor Clendon Millar’s war service on display – including his army uniform jacket, rucksack, medical chest and a number of war photographs of Trevor in uniform.

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