1st Fiji Battalion Marks Anniversary

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 14

1st Fiji Battalion Marks Anniversary

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SUVA, April 15. Nearly 500 veterans of the Solomon Islands campaign in the Second World War gathered at Suva on Saturday to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the departure of the First Battalion Fiji Infantry Regiment for service on Guadalcanal, Kolombangara and Bougainville.

They came from nearly every province in Fiji for the celebration, for which preparations have been made for months. Guests of honour were two New Zealanders, LieutenantColonel J. B. K. Taylor and Lieutenant-Colonel G. T. Upton, who commanded the battalion during the war. Colonel Taylor, who trained and managed the Fiji Rugby team which toured New Zealand in 1939, also trained the First Battalion and took the unit to the Solomons. The night before the battalion landed on Bougainville he was severely wounded in the head while on a reconnaissance visit and Colonel Upton assumed command. The two colonels took the salute at a march past at Albert Park, Suva, after a most impressive ceremony of Beat-

ing the Retreat by the Band of the Fiji Military Forces. The colonels then joined the Mayor of Suva (Cr L. H. Usher) on the saluting base outside the Civic Centre as the veterans marched through the city. Later the men and their wives packed the public rooms of the Club Hotel for a reunion dinner, which was attended by the Governor of Fiji (Sir Derek Jakeway) and Lady Jakeway. During the evening, the American Consul in Fiji. Mr Louis Link, read a message from General Leonard F. Chapman, jun., commandant of the United States Marine Corps, with which the First Battalion was associated in the Solomons. The message described the record of the battalion as “ilideed outstanding” and “equalled by very few fighting units anywhere”.