Jack Hinton John Daniel ' Jack ' Hinton VC ( 17 September 1909 – 28 June 1997 ) was a New Zealand soldier who served with the New Zealand Military Forces during the Second World War . He was awarded the Victoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces , for his actions at Kalamata on 29 April 1941 during the Battle of Greece . Early life . John Hinton , known as Jack , was born in Colac Bay in Southland , New Zealand on 17 September 1909 , one of seven children of a railway man and his wife . He was educated at local schools and on most days , before starting lessons , would milk a herd of 40 cows . When he was 12 , he ran away from home after an argument with his father . He found a job at a grocer ' s in a nearby town but after a year signed on as a galleyhand aboard a Norwegian whaling ship which spent the 1921 / 1922 whaling season in the Southern Ocean . On his return , and after reuniting with his parents on good terms , he started working as a shepherd . He soon tired of this and began the life of a swagman , working from town to town as he travelled around the South Island . Hinton spent most of the next several years on the West Coast mining for gold , fruit picking , constructing railroads , hauling coal , and saw milling . Sport was a passion for Hinton ; he boxed as a lightweight and also ran foot races and played rugby for Hokitika . In the 1930s , Hinton found regular employment in the Public Works Department , building bridges and roads throughout the West Coast . He soon became respected for his honesty and hard working nature and became a foreman for the department . In 1937 , he invested his earnings into a pub for which his future wife , Eunice Henriksen , had the lease . World War II . At the outbreak of war Hinton enlisted in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force ( 2NZEF ) which was being raised for service abroad . He was posted to 20th Battalion , under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Howard Kippenberger , and based at Burnham Military Camp . One of the older volunteers of the battalion , he was soon promoted to the rank of corporal . The battalion embarked for the Middle East as part of the 4th Infantry Brigade , 2nd New Zealand Division , in January 1940 . Hinton was not always respectful of military authority . Shortly after the New Zealanders arrived in Egypt , he was commanding a squad practising on a rifle range when visited by the division ' s commander , Major General Bernard Freyberg , who asked him how the men were shooting . " How would you expect them to bloody well shoot ? " , replied Hinton , " not enough bloody rations , stinking heat and sand " . Freyberg asked him to repeat the comment , which he did word for word . Freyberg took note of Hinton ' s name and instructed him to carry on . There was a subsequent increase in rations while Hinton was advised by his company commander on how best to speak to senior officers . Battle of Greece . In March 1941 , the 2nd New Zealand Division was one of several Allied units deployed to Greece to support the Greek resistance to an expected invasion by Italian and German troops . The 20th Battalion saw brief action at Thermopylae before being withdrawn but Hinton missed this fighting as he was with the division ' s reserve , which was initially located in Athens and then in the port of Kalamata where , along with several thousand other , mainly Australian , troops , it was awaiting evacuation . On 28 April 1941 the New Zealand contingent were awaiting its transport when advance units of the German 5th Panzer Division began an attack with machine - gun fire and self - propelled 6 - inch guns . Hearing gunfire in the distance , Hinton , wanting to assist in the defence of the Allied positions , went to the headquarters of Brigadier Leonard Parrington , the officer in command of the evacuation . Hinton vehemently protested , in strong language , an order from Parrington to surrender . On being threatened with a courtmartial for speaking to a senior officer in such a manner , he issued his own threat of proceedings to Parrington for defeatist talk and then left to determine for himself the situation . He led a party of 12 soldiers into the town but came under fire . Ignoring an order from a nearby officer to retreat , he rushed forward to the nearest gun and , hurling two grenades , killed the crew . He continued towards the town ' s waterfront , clearing out two light machine - gun nests and a mortar with grenades , then dealt with the garrison of a house where some of the enemy were sheltering . He then assisted in the capture of an artillery piece , but shortly after was shot in the stomach , immobilised and captured , one of about 6 , 000 Allied soldiers made a prisoner of war ( POW ) . Officially listed as missing in action until August 1941 , Hinton spent several weeks in a hospital near Athens until he was well enough to be transferred to a POW camp in Germany . In the meantime , a recommendation for the Victoria Cross ( VC ) for Hinton was dispatched by Major George Thomson , a medical officer who had witnessed his actions in Kalamata . After an investigation , a decision was made to award Hinton the VC , which was duly gazetted on 14 October 1941 . The citation read as follows : Prisoner of war . The announcement of Hinton ' s VC was made within a week of Lieutenant Charles Upham , another member of 20th Battalion , being awarded a VC for his actions during the fighting in the Battle of Crete . This prompted a joke that circulated within the battalion : " Join the 20th and get a VC . " While a prisoner of war at Stalag IX - C , Hinton made a number of escape attempts . He was being punished with solitary confinement for one such attempt when his VC was gazetted . He was paraded before his fellow prisoners and presented with a VC ribbon by the camp ' s commandant before being returned to his cell to complete his punishment . By April 1945 , the Allied advance into Germany threatened Hinton ' s POW camp . The Germans evacuated the camp but Hinton , feigning sickness , remained behind . Once the guards had left , he was able to find keys to the gates and let himself out . He soon made contact with soldiers of the United States 6th Armoured Division . Dressed in civilian clothes , he was initially treated with suspicion but soon convinced the Americans of his identity . He borrowed an American uniform and went forward to the frontline with the 44th Infantry Division and assisted in the capture of three villages and rounding up of German POWs . Senior American officers soon found out about Hinton ' s presence with their troops and sent him to England , where he arrived on 12 April 1945 . Hinton remained in England for over three months , awaiting repatriation to New Zealand . During this time , on 11 May 1945 , he received his Victoria Cross from King George VI at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace . Charles Upham , his comrade from 20th Battalion , received a bar to his VC at the same ceremony . Transport finally available , Hinton departed for New Zealand in early July and arrived in his home country on 4 August 1945 . Later life . After returning home , Hinton initially was indecisive about what to do with his life . Like many of his fellow soldiers who had returned home , he struggled to adapt to civilian life . He was also extremely uncomfortable with the public attention he received because of his status as a VC winner . He eventually found work managing hotels on behalf of Dominion Breweries . He was initially based at the Thistle Hotel , a notorious drinking establishment in Auckland , for three years , during which he received a belated mention in despatches for his escape attempts while a POW . In December 1949 he then moved to Hamilton to manage the Hamilton East Hotel . This was the first of many moves up and down the country to manage hotels . During his time as a hotelier , Hinton made a number of overseas trips , the first of which was to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . He also regularly attended VC and George Cross celebrations , including the centenary in 1956 . In 1963 , Eunice , who Jack had married following the death of her first husband in the 1950s , died from a heart attack . In 1968 , he was married again , to Molly Schumacher , a barmaid at the Onehunga Hotel in Auckland , which Hinton was running at the time . While in Auckland , he was heavily involved in the horse racing industry and acted as a steward at the Auckland Trotting Club . Hinton retired in 1980 and he and Molly moved to Ashburton in the South Island . He spent much of his retirement fishing and in 1990 shifted to Christchurch to be neared to Molly ' s relatives . He died on 28 June 1997 and was honoured with a military funeral , attended by 800 people . The Chief of General Staff , Major General Piers Reid , delivered a eulogy . The New Zealand parliament honoured him with a minute ' s silence at a sitting on 1 July 1997 . He was survived by his second wife ; he had no children from either of his marriages . He is buried in Christchurch , in the Returned Servicemen ' s League Section of the Ruru Lawn Cemetery . He is remembered with a plaque in his birthplace of Colac Bay and the restaurant at the Christchurch Returned Servicemen ' s Association is named for him . Victoria Cross . Hinton ' s Victoria Cross was loaned by his family to the Army Museum New Zealand at Waiouru , where it is on display . On Sunday 2 December 2007 it was one of nine Victoria Crosses that were among a hundred medals stolen from the museum . On 16 February 2008 New Zealand Police announced all the medals had been recovered as a result of a NZ $ 300 , 000 reward offered by Michael Ashcroft and Tom Sturgess .