Return of bravery medal for Aramoana hero

"Return of bravery medal for Aramoana hero"

On 24 February 2017 Lindsay Dickson returned the George Medal awarded to his mother Helen Dickson, so that it could rejoin the Police Museum collection.

The medal, an award for civilian bravery, had been awarded to Helen for her brave actions during the Aramoana massacre in 1990.

Lindsay had gifted the medal to the Police Museum last year, but had borrowed it for the Dickson family reunion.
Generations of the family were able to view the medal and take pictures with it, hearing the story of the Helen who was such a courageous mother and grandmother.

Two Invercargill staff, Senior Constable Steve Dalton and Sergeant AJ Harris, who had been part of the Invercargill Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) team at Aramoana, were honoured to catch up with Lindsay Dickson and share their memories of his brave and resourceful mother.

On 13 November 1990 Helen was living in the small seaside town of Aramoana , when another resident David Malcolm Gray fatally shot his neighbour Garry Holden and two children, and wounded one other child before setting Garry’s house on fire and embarked on a shooting rampage.

Helen heard the shots fired and went to investigate their source, when she spotted smoke coming from a neighbour’s house.

Another resident, Mr Chris Cole, was also going to investigate the shots when Gray appeared and began firing at them.
Mr Cole was wounded.

Helen was 72 at the time and due to her age, as well as two artificial hips and restricted arm movements after surgery, she was unable to run for cover.
She was able to help Mr Cole to the roadside where they both fell to the ground.

She discovered he was seriously wounded in his lower back and was unable to move any further.

Helen courageously crawled approximately 100 metres on her stomach to a telephone booth to call Police and an ambulance.
She crawled back to the wounded man and comforted him while they waited for help to arrive.

However, concerned at the length of time it was taking for medical aid to arrive, she crawled back to her home and made further calls to emergency services.

Throughout the night Helen continued to update police on what was happening, all the time unaware that James, one of her sons, had been fatally shot.
Police were eventually able to rescue Mrs Dickson and Mr Cole , however he later died from his wounds.

Helen was awarded the George Medal for her actions on 19 December 1991, the second highest medal there was for civilian bravery.
She was the first woman to be awarded the honour.

Her actions were also praised at the time by then Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, Prime Minister Jim Bolger, Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Wiersma and Police Commissioner John Jamieson.

Helen Dickson died in 2007.

Lindsay Dickson, one of Helen’s sons, presented his mother’s medal to the New Zealand Police Museum in Porirua in 2016.

Senior Constable Dalton and Sergeant Harris had been among the first police to check on Helen at her home after the gunman was apprehended and they were delighted to be able to share their thoughts and memories of her with Lindsay as they received the medal on behalf of the Police Museum last week.

The officers recalled that after the siege was over, Helen invited them inside for a cold drink.

They lined all their rifles up along Helen’s verandah and relaxed for a while, while she rustled up cold drinks as it had been a really hot day.

They described Helen as delightful and tough.
She took great comfort from the friendly AOS members from Invercargill and she always referred to them as her “Invercargill Johnnies”.

ENDS

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