OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23360, 20 June 1941, Page 8

OBITUARY

i MR E. J. REEVE

Mr Edmund John (Rangi) Reeve, Croix de Guerre, and a former ser-geant-major in the Ist Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, who died recently at his residence at Kaiapoi, took a prominent part in the Kaiapoi Returned Soldiers’ Association and in the formation of the Kaiapoi Home Guard. He was also a member of the Southern Cross Masonic Lodge. He had been a member of the executive committee of the Kaiapoi Returned Soldiers’ Association for many years, holding office as president, and at the time of his death he was secretary to the association. He was a platoon commander in the Kaiapoi Home Guard. Mr Reeve was posted to* the Ist Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in May, 1915. He. served in every major operation in which the battalion participated from the fight at Wadi Magid, Egypt, on Christmas Day, 1915, until the Armistice in 1918. For his good work at Passchendaele he was awarded fee' Belgian Croix de Guerre, At one time he was cook to his company, but being a natural leader with the gift of tactfully but judiciously handling men he passed through various non-commissioned officer’s ranks to that of company sergeant-major. When the battalion finally marched into Germany he was one of the few remaining original members still with the unit.