Te Puke’s Glenn Williams says learning he had been awarded a King’s Service Medal for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community was “humbling” and a “hard secret to keep from the family”.

Retiring last year after 42 years of service with local volunteer fire brigades, Glenn has continued serving the community as a member and vice president of the Bay of Plenty Justice of the Peace Association.

In October, he will step into the role of president.

Sworn in as a Justice of the Peace the day Queen Elizabeth II died, Glenn was told he was most likely the first person in the world to make the judicial oath to the new sovereign, King Charles III.

Starting his firefighting service in 1981 with Mount Maunganui Volunteer Fire Brigade, he moved to the Te Puke branch 12 years later, where he served as chief fire officer from 2006 until his retirement.

“It was a bit strange to start with [when I retired] and the siren went off,” he says, recalling the realisation he “didn’t need to go anywhere”.

Glenn says the honour is also a recognition of the support he’s had from all the people he has worked with over the decades - “a great bunch of volunteers”.

“And my family,” he says.

“I couldn’t have done this over that length of time without the support of my wife and three children.”

He became a director of the United Fire Brigades Association in 2011, attaining several leadership roles until being appointed president in 2018 and subsequently a life member in 2019.

He was a trustee of Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand from 2016 to 2019 and Glenn also led a committee to fundraise $50,000 for Te Puke High School in 2009.

-Bay of Plenty Times.