Most decorated · 13 medals and honours, 1 for gallantry
Major General Owen Mead
Owen Mead was a Blenheim bank clerk and cadet officer who sailed with the Main Body in 1914 as a lieutenant and was a lieutenant-colonel commanding a Canterbury battalion at 25. He won the DSO for command at Passchendaele and in the German spring offensive of 1918, stayed on as a regular officer, became Adjutant-General and a CBE, and in 1942 was the highest-ranking New Zealand officer killed in the Second World War when his aircraft vanished between Fiji and Tonga. By the counting rule he holds 13 items, one of them a gallantry award.
13medals and honours
1of them for gallantry
His medals and honours
Won for gallantry
Gallantry award
Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
Passchendaele, October 1917, and the German spring offensive, March-June 1918; gazetted 3 June 1919 · Passchendaele; Mailly-Maillet and the Somme front, 1918 · Lieutenant-Colonel, Canterbury Regiment (Gazette: 2nd Battalion; Cenotaph: 1st Battalion)
Gazetted: Supplement to the London Gazette 31370, 3 June 1919 (King's Birthday Honours, issued 30 May 1919), p. 6822
Mead was a 25-year-old major when he was made temporary lieutenant-colonel in September 1917 and then confirmed in the rank in October, taking over a Canterbury battalion on the Passchendaele front (the Cenotaph dates his command of the 1st Battalion from 12 October 1917, the day of the New Zealand Division's costly attack at Passchendaele). He kept the battalion through the winter and met the German spring offensive in March 1918, when the New Zealanders were rushed to the Mailly-Maillet and Hebuterne sector to help plug the gap. The Cenotaph summarises the citation as recognising gallantry and devotion to duty as a commander at Passchendaele and in the 1918 fighting, with skilful leadership and personal example; I have not seen the printed citation. He ended the war commanding the training battalion of the Canterbury Regiment. The DSO appeared in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours among New Zealand officers including Lieutenant-Colonel R. S. McQuarrie.
The Online Cenotaph lists 'Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)' twice. The Gazette, Wikipedia and the Canterbury Regiment roll all give one DSO and no bar, so it is counted once. The Gazette names his battalion as the 2nd; the Cenotaph says 1st Battalion from 12 October 1917.
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: London Gazette supplement 31370 p6822 (read); Wikipedia 'Owen Mead'; Online Cenotaph C29671; Dominion 31 Jan 1918
Every other medal and honour (12)
1914-15 Star1914-1915 · Egypt and GallipoliQualified by Main Body service from October 1914 and the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915, when he was wounded but stayed ashore until night.British War Medal 1914-201914-1918 · Egypt, Gallipoli, England, France and FlandersAwarded for overseas service in the war.Victory Medal1914-1919 · Gallipoli and Western FrontAwarded to those who served in a theatre of war; with his 1919 mention in despatches he would have worn the oak leaf on its ribbon.King George V Silver Jubilee Medal 19356 May 1935 · New ZealandAwarded to a limited number of serving officers and officials in 1935, a year before he became Adjutant-General.King George VI Coronation Medal 193712 May 1937 · New ZealandAwarded to selected serving officers on the coronation of King George VI, while he was Adjutant-General.New Zealand Territorial Service MedalDate not found · New ZealandListed on his Cenotaph record as a service medal for his time with the Territorial Force and the cadets before and after the war.Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)King's Birthday Honours, June 1940; Gazette 11 July 1940 · New ZealandThe CBE was gazetted in the Birthday Honours of 1940 as 'Colonel Owen Herbert Mead, D.S.O., New Zealand Staff Corps', among the Commanders of the military division. At the time he was Adjutant-General of the New…1939-1945 Star1939-1942 · New Zealand and FijiListed on the Cenotaph for his wartime service as Adjutant-General and district commander; the medals would have been issued after his death.Pacific StarMarch-July 1942 · FijiListed on the Cenotaph for his service as General Officer Commanding the Pacific Section, 2NZEF, in the defence of Fiji from March 1942 until his death.War Medal 1939-19451939-1942 · New Zealand and FijiAwarded for full-time wartime service from 1939 until his death in 1942.New Zealand War Service Medal1939-1942 · New Zealand and FijiAwarded for full-time service in the New Zealand forces in the Second World War; his service ended with his death on duty in 1942.Mentioned in DespatchesFlers, 18-26 September 1916 (first); 16 September 1918 to 15 March 1919 (second) · Somme (Flers); France and FlandersThe first mention honoured his work as an officer during the whole of the fighting round Flers (the Cenotaph gives 18-26 September 1916); Wikipedia, citing McDonald, says it was for leading his company, and he was…
His story
Born
Born in Blenheim (contemporary press) or Dunedin (Wikipedia); educated at Marlborough High School, worked for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency in Blenheim and was in charge of the senior cadets in 1914.
Source: Dominion 31 Jan 1918; Press 29 Jul 1942; Wikipedia
Main Body
Volunteered at once and left with the Main Body as a lieutenant in the Canterbury Regiment (a platoon commander in the 2nd South Canterbury Company).
Source: Dominion 31 Jan 1918
Gallipoli landing
Landed with his company and was wounded early in the day but stayed ashore until night; later fought at Cape Helles and was evacuated to England with dysentery and enteric.
Source: Dominion 31 Jan 1918; Wikipedia
Flers
A company commander in France, he was wounded at Flers and mentioned in despatches (gazetted 4 January 1917).
Source: Wikipedia; London Gazette 29890 p261
Rapid promotion
Promoted major in March 1917 in the new 4th Brigade, took part in Messines, then in September 1917 became temporary lieutenant-colonel commanding a battalion; the rank was made substantive in October.
Source: Wikipedia; Dominion 31 Jan 1918
Passchendaele and the spring offensive
Commanded his Canterbury battalion through the later Passchendaele fighting and the German offensive; DSO gazetted 3 June 1919 and a second mention on 11 July 1919.
Source: London Gazette 31370 p6822, 31448 p8836; Online Cenotaph
Staff Corps
Left the NZEF in 1920 to join the NZ Staff Corps; Staff College, Camberley (1927-28); War Office; Adjutant-General 1936-38.
Source: Wikipedia
Second World War staff post and CBE
Brigadier commanding the Northern Military District in September 1939, then Adjutant-General again; CBE in the 1940 Birthday Honours; from October 1940 commanded the Southern Military District.
Source: Wikipedia; London Gazette 34893 p4250
Fiji and loss at sea
Promoted major general and took command of NZ forces in the Pacific (8th and 14th Brigades) in Fiji. On 25 July 1942 his RNZAF Hudson went missing on the way to Tonga; no trace was found.
The ranks he held, and the badge a soldier of that rank wore. These are simplified illustrations.
Lieutenant1914 · Canterbury Regiment, NZEFShoulder strap: two pipsCaptainby 1916Shoulder strap: three pipsMajorMarch 1917Shoulder strap: crownTemporary Lieutenant-ColonelSeptember 1917 (substantive October 1917)Shoulder strap: crown and one pipCaptain1920 · NZ Staff CorpsShoulder strap: three pipsMajor1925Shoulder strap: crownColonel1936Shoulder strap: crown and two pipsBrigadierSeptember 1939Shoulder strap: crown and three pipsMajor GeneralMarch 1942Shoulder strap: crossed sword and baton, one pip
Afterwards
Mead left the NZEF in 1920 but stayed in the army, joining the New Zealand Staff Corps, passing through the Staff College at Camberley and serving a term at the War Office before returning to New Zealand in 1930 for staff jobs, among them area officer at Palmerston North and brigade major of a Territorial brigade. He was Adjutant-General from 1936 to 1938 and again from 1939, commanded the Northern Military District in 1939 and the Southern Military District from October 1940.
In March 1942 he became a major general in command of the Pacific Section of the 2NZEF, responsible for the defence of Fiji, and sat on Fiji's Executive Council. After the Americans relieved the New Zealanders in July he flew out on 25 July 1942 to inspect Tonga; the Hudson was never found. He is the highest-ranking New Zealand officer killed on active service in the Second World War and is named on the Bourail Memorial in New Caledonia.
Later awards, not counted here: CBE (1940); 1939-1945 Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-1945; New Zealand War Service Medal.
This is the Service Record sign as we would make it from his record: his rank, name, regiment, number and date of embarkation. The medals on the sign are worked out automatically, so the medals listed above are the ones to rely on.
The Service Record
Photograph
We haven’t hosted a photograph here
Rather than copy someone else’s image onto our own site, we’d rather send you to see it where it’s properly held: his full record at the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Online Cenotaph.
Cenotaph lists the DSO twice; Gazette, Wikipedia and the Canterbury Regiment roll show one DSO and no bar. Counted once.
Mentions: two confirmed in the Gazette (4 Jan 1917; 11 Jul 1919). The Cenotaph 'oak leaf' attached to the War Medal 1939-1945 looks like the First World War emblem misplaced; no Second World War mention found. Counted as one item.
Birthplace conflict: Blenheim (Dominion 1918, Press 1942) versus Dunedin (Wikipedia, citing Haigh and Polaschek).
Battalion conflict: the Gazette lists the DSO and 1919 mention under the 2nd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment; the Cenotaph says he commanded the 1st Battalion from 12 October 1917.
Medals with no source other than the Cenotaph: 1939-1945 Star, Pacific Star (posthumous), War Medal 1939-1945, NZ Territorial Service Medal, Silver Jubilee 1935, Coronation 1937. Without the two Stars and the Territorial Service Medal his total would be 10.
Gallantry count is 1 (the DSO). CBE counted as an honour, not as gallantry.
I could not read the printed DSO citation; the Cenotaph's summary is used.
WebFetch was blocked for the Canterbury roll and CWGC; the roll was read in a browser.
