OBITUARY: Life could have been very different for Derek Morten.
With World War II well under way he was keen to enlist, but his father thought it was too dangerous, especially as two of his sons were already serving, one in the navy and the other in the army.
Undeterred, Morten persuaded his father to sign his papers and he joined the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNZNVR).
He would go on to have a distinguished military career, training as a pilot and completing daring missions in Europe and the Pacific.
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Born in Christchurch on December 21, 1921, Morten grew up on a family farm near to Little River. Until he was 9 he was taught by his mother, who herself had no formal education.
He admitted to being “very rough around the edges” when he started at Medbury School – a private school for boys in Christchurch – but ended up as head prefect.
Times were tough for his family during the Great Depression. Morten attended Christ’s College for three years but chose to leave at 16 because of his parents’ financial problems.
After a stint at Canterbury Frozen Meat company – as “a glorified office boy” – he signed up for Fleet Air Arm training, which began in Auckland in February 1942.
His tuition took place in the United States and his first flight was on December 30 that year, just after his 21st birthday.
He was awarded his pilot wings by March 1944, qualified to fly the American Corsair fighter aircraft and operate off a carrier flight deck.
After joining the Fleet Air Arm’s 1841 Squadron in June the same year, he was posted aboard the HMS Formidable.
In July and August 1944 the Royal Navy aircraft carrier was involved in several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, which was sheltering in Alta Fjord in northern Norway. Morten was involved in two of the attacks.
HMS Formidable was later assigned to the British Pacific Fleet and the ship arrived in Sydney in March 1945. It was there, while on shore leave, that Morten met Pamela Ashley-Wilson.
“By the time the shift left Sydney on March 21, while we were not formally engaged, we both knew it was far more than a passing attraction,” he wrote at the time.
On May 4, Morten led aircraft in the North Pacific to the southeast of Taiwan, being directed by the ship’s radar towards an unidentified aircraft.
But the instructions suddenly stopped. The Formidable had been hit by a Japanese Kamikaze plane.
The ship’s armoured flight deck took the bulk of the impact, but there was major damage as the Kamikaze’s engine penetrated as far as the inner skin of the hull at the bottom of the ship.
Eight sailors were killed, 47 wounded and nine aircraft were destroyed.
During another skirmish on August 10 Morten was on patrol over Japan when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire.
Determined not to use his parachute over the mainland, he ditched into the Sea of Japan. He spent five hours in his rubber dinghy before being picked up by an American submarine that was patrolling the area to rescue downed airmen.
The captain told Morten he was very lucky. Had he been half a mile closer to the shore he wouldn’t have been rescued because the area was a minefield.
At the end of the war he returned to Sydney and he and Pamela were married within a fortnight. The couple were together for 59 years.
Morten was one of more than 1600 New Zealanders who flew with the Fleet Air Arm. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in action against the Tirpitz and was Mentioned in Dispatches for his other active service.
He made 99 deck landings and was disappointed not to have achieved 100, but counted himself lucky not to have had any major accidents.
With World War II over, Morten returned to Canterbury Frozen Meat in 1945 and stayed there for his whole working career.
He moved into management in 1950 and even returned to Japan in 1959 on a successful mission to open up the meat market there.
“It was a very courageous act on the part of the company, as I had never sold anything in my life,” he said.
He was posted to London for five years in the 1960s to learn the marketing side of the business, but said he always preferred the processing and industrial aspects of the job.
He was made general manager of the company in 1972 and became managing director in 1979, leading the negotiations with UK company Borthwicks to take over the Belfast plant. Morten retired in 1981.
He celebrated his 100th birthday in December 2021. A news report at the time noted that his faculties were largely intact and he was still mobile, but Morten admitted his hearing was “bloody awful”.
“I never thought I would get here,” he said. “I don’t know [the secret].
Morten died on February 5, aged 101. He was doing cryptic crosswords up until a week before his death.
He was the last surviving New Zealand World War II Fleet Air Arm pilot and Rear Admiral David Proctor, New Zealand’s chief of navy, attended his funeral in recognition of his service.
His family said he will be remembered as a “lovely, gentle man” and “a bright, funny raconteur”. He is survived by daughter Rowen, sons Peter and Paul, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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