A crowd of nearly 1000 gathered in Cameron Park and numbers were also up at the Dawn Service, which was 300 strong.

Keynote speaker Chief Correctional Officer Matthew Pike spoke about his time in the military police and how the values of discipline, endurance, self-sacrifice and perseverance were ideals which he had come to value in his own career.

"And above all, mateship," he said.

"This value was so important to the Anzacs that a man would die for his mate."

This was a very special Anzac Day for the Hampstead family who travelled from Woodberry in NSW to honour their father who served in WWII and passed away in 2000.

"We just thought it would be nice to come back to Wellington for Anzac Day this year," his eldest daughter Dianne Barrett said, adding that it had been a wonderful experience and while he was a quiet sort of man he would have appreciated the gesture.

Like many who went to war, their father Corporal Jim Hampstead didn't talk much about what many would say were heroic and brave actions under fire in Malaya and Papua New Guinea.

It wasn't until years later when his teenage granddaughter asked him about those experiences that he said: "I can do better than that" and pulled out a worn clipping which he had been carrying around in his wallet for the past 30 years.

As his family read the 1942 Wellington Times article they were shocked to learn about his escape from Malaya (now known as Peninsular Malaysia) "dodging bombs and submarines".

There, it detailed how it all began, sailing for an unknown destination which turned out to be Singapore and Malaya and the "death trap" that awaited as the Japanese began their drive with other axis powers.

Had he been alive this year he would have turned 100. Sixteen years later the man who survived the horror of war will be honoured by his family.

"We just think it is an amazing story. The fact that he got out of that."

"When we went in the car somewhere he would sing war songs? He had the uniform and always went to the Anzac Day service, but he never talked much about it."

The Wellington Times in 1942 reported Australian soldiers were outnumbered five to one through the rough country of rubber plantations, thick jungle and often struggling waist deep through swampy marshes.

At one stage their treacherous journey was more than 60 miles in two days.

When they took up a position on the west coast they were shelled for six days with artillery, mortars and dive bombing planes and the enemy were 20,000 strong.

They arrived at a place called the Anzac Club to find it alight and as they waited on the wharves, six of the men were killed by Japanese snipers.

The men escaped in a small boat, and they rowed 41 miles to a ship and were taken aboard just as it was leaving, but it wasn't smooth sailing from there.

They were bombarded by about 80 high-level fighters which flew low over the vessel and while other ships were being sunk behind them, they managed to dodge the bombs and clear the straits before the arrival of the Japanese naval fleet.

On their arrival in Fremantle, the soldiers were arrested until their story was found to be authentic.

Between 1942 and 1945 Corporal Hampstead also went to Papua New Guinea twice, the second time on the Kokoda Trail.

Mr Hampstead settled and married in Newcastle after the war but he always spoke fondly about Wellington andworking for Ken Masters near Spicers Creek.

At the weekend three of his four children made the journey back for the first time in 40 years. They will remember the journey of a brave soldier who survived against all odds.

"He was a very quiet sort of man," Mrs Barrett said.

"He was a kind and gentle man, and you hardly ever saw him cranky."