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Final rank:

Private

First name/s

Tiale Bau Mara

Last name

VUIYASAWA

Service number and Regiment/Unit/Corps

16/1364
4th Māori Reinforcements, New Zealand Pioneer Battalion
Rarotongan Company

Also known as

Ratu Tiale Bau Mara (Charlie) Wimbledon Thomas VUIYASAWA

Date of birth

April 1895 (as per war service record)

Place of birth

Nakelo, Fiji

Date of death

08/03/1981

Place of death

Suva, Fiji

Death registration number

Unknown

Headstone/grave location

Suva Cemetery, Suva, Fiji

Next of kin

Mrs Litiana Maapa (mother), Bau, Fiji

Additional information

Enlisted 27 December 1915. Sailed for Egypt on SS Mokoia and disembarked at Suez 23 June 1916. Re-embarked from Alexandria for United Kingdom on 26 July 1916 and arrived at Sling Camp 24 August 1916. Posted to the Nw Zealand Pioneer Battalion in France 11 September 1916. Detached from the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion 14 January 1918 and sailed to Egypt 15 February 1918 to join the Rarotongan Company 5 March 1918. Admitted to 24th Stationary Hospital at Kantara 10 September 1918 with severe malaria and transferred to 27th General Hospital at Abbassia. Convalesced in the Aotea Convalescent Home until rejoining the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Bde Training Regiment & Base Depot on 5 October 1918. Returned to New Zealand with the Rarotongan Company on SS Malta. Discharged 7 March 1919. In WWII he was known as J. W. T. Vuiyasawa and served in 1st Battalion Fiji Labour Corps.

Images and documents

Image credits and references

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​Further links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiale_Vuiyasawa
"Vuiyasawa was born into a chiefly family, the second son of Joni Madraiwiwi I and Litiana Maopa after Lala Sukuna, and the uncle of future Prime Minister Kamisese Mara. He attended school in Levuka before completing his education at Wesley College in Melbourne. In 1916 he enlisted in the New Zealand army, joining the 4th Maori Reinforcements. After serving in Egypt and France with the Pioneer Battalion, he was transferred to the Rarotongan Company who were in Palestine".

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/ratu-tiale-vuiyasawa

https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/155-years-on-hundreds-gather-to-bury-chief/

The younger brother of Ratu Joseva Lalabalava Sukuna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_Sukuna)

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