Tangi for last Maori officer

More than 200 people gathered at Manuka Point in the Chatham Islands on Sunday to lay to rest the last remaining officer of the 28th Maori Battalion.

Lieutenant Alfred ‘Bunty’ Preece died on Friday morning at the age of 96.

He was a father of seven children, a husband and a community man, but his life was also remembered as one of extraordinary survival in a war where thousands of New Zealanders lost their lives.

In his opening address, Defence Minister Ron Mark acknowledged his service: “He answered the call to arms to defend our way of life against one of the most professional, well-trained, best-equipped, best-organised military forces of evil to ever have threatened mankind and the free world and our way of life.

“Bunty you did that, and you didn’t have to. Because after all, the Chatham Islands is about as far away to the horrors in the war in Europe as you could have imagined. But like so many, Bunty, you answered the call and volunteered.”

Lieutenan Preece was the commissioned officer in charge of 16 platoon of the Battalion’s D company.