File:Poppy, fundraising (AM 2014.21.29-1).jpg

length: 125mm

Collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, 2014.21.24.16

NZ Returned Services' Association poppy Belonged to 432738 Lieut. Kenneth Russell Porter, NZ Field Regiment, 10th Reinforcements, 2NZEF and post-WW2 Territorials. Ken Porter, aged 19, joined up after war broke out. He was already a keen sportsman, excelling on the rugby field and at swimming. At age 21, he went overseas to join the NZ Division in the Middle East. He had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in New Zealand but resigned his commission to go overseas. He landed in Italy in late 1943 and saw action in most of the Italian campaigns including several months in the front line at Cassino. He was recommissioned about this time. In September that year, Ken was wounded near Rimini in Northern Italy and was sent by hospital ship to the huge base hospital at Bari in the south. While convalescing, he was posted to HQ at Senigallia in the north and it was there that he met his future Italian wife, Laura.While in Sienna awaiting transport home, Ken proposed to Laura. She followed him out to New Zealand arriving mid-1946, and they married in June. The couple had two children, Sylvia was born in 1947 and Ronald in 1951. Ken Porter served with the Territorials post-war (Auckland and Wellington) rising to the rank of Major before reaching compulsory retirement age at 45. In 1977 Ken and his family moved to Australia with his role as Victoria State Manager with the ANZ from which he retired in 1981 on his 60th birthday. Ken was an active participant in the Kiwi section of the Australian Returned Services League.

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