April 21, 2023
Thesis makes case for Manahi medal
Relatives of the late Haane Manahi see the change of monarch as a chance to tono again for the Victoria Cross denied to their tūpuna.
His niece Donna Grant will today present her PhD thesis on the decades-long battle for recognition of his heroism at Takrouna in Tunisia in April 1943, when over three days Lance Sergeant Manahi and two companions fought their way up a strategic ridge and captured the summit.
She was able to draw on eye witness accounts collected by former Māori Battalion commander Sir Charles Bennett after her uncle’s death in a car accident in 1986,.
With help from military historian Chris Pugsley she found the citation in British archives of the recommendation for the highest honour of a Victoria Cross and the handwritten alteration knocking it down to a DCM.
Ms Grant was part of the campaign which in 2007 resulted in Queen Elizabeth recognising Sergeant Manahi’s service with symbolic gifts, but not the upgrade sought because her father King George VI had closed off medals for the Second World War.
“Whilst the Queen acknowledged his bravery and his valour, she could not bring herself to go against her father’s wishes. Therein lies the case for the new monarch, King Charles, and when he eventually comes to New Zealand perhaps we can provide him with more substantive evidence from my research for his formal consideration,” Ms Grant says.