Donating military memorabilia

The Royal New Zealand RSA (RNZRSA) does not have a national museum, archive or storage facility and is unable to accept military memorabilia.

Individual RSAs may be able to accept items offered by families, but their storage and display space is often limited. You can find contact details for your local RSA on this website.

Before making a donation, please speak with the RSA about its memorabilia policy, whether it can care for and display the items, and what would happen to them if the RSA were to close. Once items are gifted, they become the property of that RSA. While every effort may be made to return them to the family if they can no longer be held, this may not always be possible. If the family cannot be located, the items could be transferred to another organisation or sold, depending on the RSA’s policy.

Military memorabilia often carries deep personal meaning for a veteran’s family, but may have limited historical or financial value to others. Where possible, we recommend keeping these items within the family, together with information about the person they belonged to and the story behind them.

Families may also wish to approach one of New Zealand’s service museums: the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum in Auckland, the National Army Museum Te Mata Toa in Waiouru, or the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram. Each museum has its own collection policy and cannot accept every item, so please contact the museum before sending or delivering anything.

Finding Memorabilia that has been donated

The RNZRSA does not have a national archive or centralised database of the military memorabilia that has been donated to individual member Associations.

If an item was gifted to “the RSA”, it was most likely given to a particular local Association. Each Association is an independent organisation responsible for managing its own collection, so family members should contact the Association that received the item directly. You can find contact details for all local Associations here.

The RNZRSA's National Office cannot confirm where an item is held or access the records of individual Associations. If you are unsure which Association received it, we recommend checking family records or speaking with relatives who may know when and where the donation was made.