The Upham House connection with Major James Hannah
Posted on May 13, 2021
The Upham House connection with Major James Hannah, Dental Officer, NZDF, OSM (Operational Service Medal, East Timor).
James’s father Dr James Bradshaw Hannah (Snr), a Royal Army Medical Officer, was taken as a Prisoner of War (POW), along with Charles Upham (Double Victoria Cross recipient) in the desert at Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt in 1942 during the World War II Desert Campaign.
As mentioned in Upham’s biography Mark of the Lion, Charles had a badly wounded arm, while earning his second Victoria Cross, which almost cost him his life. However, he refused the Germans intentions to amputate his arm, so the German Medical Team handed him over to Dr James B Hannah (Snr) for treatment as they didn’t expect Charles to live.
Charles woke after several days of fever, to find his arm “expertly dressed by a young British Medical Officer” who was James’s father.
Dr James B Hannah (Snr) saved Charles Upham’s arm and consequently his life.
They lost touch after the war until Dr James B Hannah (Snr) emigrated to New Zealand and worked near Dunedin. From there James (Snr) would visit Charles on his farm outside Christchurch … and a shot of whiskey was drunk when they remembered what may have happened if Charles had not survived his wounds. There would have been no children, no farm and no Victoria Cross hero for New Zealand to celebrate!
Charles died in November 1994 and Dr James B Hannah died in 2006 but the family connection was restored when Major James Hannah was contacted by Amanda Upham, daughter of Charles and the Patron of Upham House at Macleans College.
From 2013 Amanda Upham asked James Hannah to be her Escort Officer to Upham House on the ANZAC Day Service. James first attended by invitation from the school in 2014.
After Amanda died in 2017, James continued to stay in contact with the Upham family who all live down the line, and not in Auckland. James has been their representative at Upham House for all their ANZAC Day Services since.
In memory of the friendship between James’s father and Charles Upham, James (Jnr) has started a Scholarship and a trophy for Macleans College to award to a pupil who shows “selfless service to others”.
James (Jnr), who is also good friends with Corporal Willie Apiata (another Victoria Cross winner), works as a Dental Officer at the Devonport Navy Base (Fleet). He has organised visits to the navy’s ships by students contemplating a career in the Defence Force. He says the most popular ships are the smaller Patrol ships, which are used in fishery protection and preventing illegal fishing inside New Zealand’s economic zone. James works alongside the Defence Careers Recruiters and the school career advisers.
James is honoured to continue the bonds of friendship forged in the past and carried into the future between the Upham and Hannah families, and Macleans College.