“Dick Kopu was one of the first Māori to join the Royal New Zealand Navy.

When Dick joined it was the British Navy - the Royal Navy, his nephew Grant Knuckey says.

"Then they formed the Royal New Zealand Navy. There was some type of talk around whether they let natives into the navy."  

That's what the family talked about when they discussed his uncle.

"He was an exceptional student, so they tell me, at New Plymouth Boys' High School. His name is on the memorial gate there. I spoke to one or two people, years ago, about them writing letters for him to get into the navy. He didn't volunteer. He joined the navy." 

He got character references from W.H.Moyes, the headmaster of Boys' High, and Dick Wilson, later Mayor of Waitara, Knuckey says.

Dick served on the HMNZS Achilles.

"He went to Singapore and became ill and came home and died sometime after he was discharged from the navy. It was considered to be a war wound. He got TB either on the ship or in Singapore. We do know he went up to the Pacific Islands at some time as well." 

Dick died in New Plymouth on March 23, 1942, aged 21. 

He is buried at Ngahuinga, Waiongona and his headstone was erected by the Department of Internal Affairs and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

"We always had his photo hanging my grandfather's house and when he passed away Mum kept it," Knuckey says.

 And his photo hangs in the meeting house at the Owae Marae in Waitara.”

[extract from Taranaki Daily News 15/4/2019]