2006: The Upham Boomers

November 22, 2020

By AHNZ

Captain Charles Upham (died today, 22 Nov, 1994) was survived by his children, Baby Boomers. The way the Boomers treated the memory of the ‘Greatest Generation’ who came before them is instructive. A story from 2006 re-told….

The main street in Amberley, North Canterbury, is a big wide straight and flat affair with…I dunno, tractor dealerships and general stores either side of it¹. And, a big bronze statue of WW2 hero Charles Upham- which I always spare a glance on my way by.

Many miles away, in Auckland, is a totally different main street. Parnell road is sometimes straight, sometimes very steep and always of regular narrow width. It’s filled up with bars, restaurants, and several exclusive fancy expensive shops that sell things like designer wool garments, rare books, or dresses.

Amanda Upham, daughter to Charles himself, comes from the former and now dwells in the latter surroundings, Stuff reported. What a contrast it is between these two places. Don’t get me wrong about Parnell, it’s a beautiful village thick with history and fun back-streets to explore and secret little short-cut alleys and pathways to parks. Love it, and love the glamour too. But fine places like this also lend themselves to snobs, and that’s what this aloof chain-smoking interior decorator old woman bloody well is!

“No, no, no we don’t need the money. Last weekend my twin (Virginia) was at the Warbirds in Wanaka, Caroline was in Bermuda and I was at the Auckland races.”

The way Upham sees it, getting some money from her father’s VC is payback.- Daughter explains desire to sell war medals; Stuff

And so she might remain, and little would I care except that the fate of a national treasure is was in her hands. Charles Upham is a New Zealand war hero, a unique double recipient of the Victoria Cross, an ass-kicking Cantabrian, a fighter, a real winner. Between battles he used to sneak off on his own to kill Germans, he was committed to battle like a true warrior should be. If I were on campaign I’d like to think his courage and extra projects are the sorts of things I’d get up to. Upham refused to sell his medals in his time because, to him, that transaction would represent turning in for mere money the higher value of what he and his mates suffered to achieve. But he’s dead now, and the medals’ ownership go to his three daughters- including the despicable up-herself Upham.

Defence Minister Phil Goff claims the family has asked the government to pay $3.3 million, but Amanda Upham says that is “categorically incorrect”. But she won’t give the true figure.

At the start of the interview, she describes Goff, who has openly criticised the family’s wish to sell: “I highly respect him, but I find him naive.” By the end of the interview she has dispensed with such niceties and simply says: “He’s riff-raff.”

Upham says the government is being “grossly unfair” in refusing to buy the medals, but “insisting” they stay at the museum.- ibid

It is grossly unfair, she says, that the Government refuses to shell out for them. She wants pay back! She says she has had to live with her Father’s fame but never got paid for it!? I hate this woman. But what should happen to the medals?

Most libertarians, in answering this moral question, would answer politically. They would say “I don’t care, as long as she’s not hurting anybody else” and smugly retire as if that were the answer to all questions of moral judgement. Not me. I prefer to answer the question.

The medals are private property, this business is up to the Uphams, but I’ll be damned if I don’t have a strong stake in this too as a grateful inheritor of their Father’s handiwork!

The Uphams should not sell them, it’s the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do is to appreciate what they represent and accept the honour of being entrusted with their keeping (with a little help from Waiouru military museum.) If these ageing harpies can’t see that then they should snap out of it. Wake up! Don’t care? Start to care. They should.

Baby Boomer Kids Don’t Give A Damn

Alas, as has been observed many times, the Boomer Generation is massively self-entitled. Upham himself remarked that they lacked the Pioneer Spirit that made Kiwis great. I’ve wondered if their growing up in the post-war years deprived them of essential serotonin as babies. Once again, the Boomer Upham daughters’ position fits this profile of being out for themselves with no interest in being the guardians of family or national treasure…

She says the three sisters all want to sell the medals, but the other two are keeping their children out of the equation. She says the issue has caused no family rift.

Upham is deeply proud of her father, but is blunt when asked what he would have thought of the medals being sold.

“He received no monetary gain in his lifetime, and a deceased person cannot have any monetary gain – they’re dead. Unless he’s risen from the grave, and he hasn’t.”

They wont. They don’t give a toss, Dad is dead and they see dollar signs they can appreciate in exchange for something they simply cannot. So I say give it to them, whoever wants to. I’d be glad to see the treasures out of their wrinkly old crone hands. They don’t deserve them.

New Zealand’s urban population of townies had been taking over since the youthful days that made Upham and his Heroic Generation. Now townies lived ‘artificial lives all their lives’ safe and comfortable inside the human zoo of modern society. Looking around him at the new crop of New Zealanders, Upham saw shadows were falling on the old Kiwi spirit he had known…

The Pioneer Spirit, Upham said, was not dark yet but it’s getting there. His estimate in 1961: It would be dead in a generation.- Upham Interview- Not Dark Yet

I’d be happiest for the medals to be in play in the marketplace where their symbolic value to New Zealand and the World, beyond the base materials of their construction, has a real and ongoing meaning to people.

“The family, she said, was now focused on assisting in the production of a movie to bring the story of Charles Upham to the big screen.”- Stuff, ibid

The Upham film was never developed, although it did make off with $300,000 of taxpayer money for The Upham Boomers and a liquidated production company²! Maybe that was the plan all along. And, maybe we’re far better off not having a film about such an important New Zealander told by his ungrateful inheritors.

—

1 One thing nearby is the Waitaha monument; Ref. 1500: The Waitaha

2 Ref. Charles Upham film company goes broke; Stuff (2009)

Note: At the end of 2006 the Upham Boomers sold their father’s medals to Britain’s Imperial War Museum. For how much? We don’t know; Ref. Medal elevates winner to highest pinnacle; NZHerald; Wayback Machine

Ref. 2010s: Baby Boomer Self-Entitlement; AHNZ

Ref.1961: Upham Interview- Not Dark Yet; AHNZ

Ref. Daughter explains desire to sell war medals; Stuff (dead link)

Ref. ibid; Wayback Machine

Image ref. Captains Upham and Kirk in 1982; Lyn Moe‎ to West Coast South Island history (2015); Facebook

Image ref. Upham Statue, Amberley; Hurunui District Council

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