In November 1961, 212 young men were recruited from Fiji to join the British Army; the first of many Fijian troops to serve. Many went straight from school; others had worked for only a few years; there were students, farmers, clerks, people from all races and walks of Fijian society. Few had been outside Fiji. They left Fiji in the height of the tropical summer and arrived in Britain to face one of its coldest winters ever.

Tony Waqairoba was one such man, enlisting into the Royal Leicestershire Regiment and arriving at Glen Pava Barracks to start his basic training. Tony was a gifted sportsman and played rugby for the Army and the Regiment. Those who are knowledgeable about the game say his Army playing days would have been longer, had the selectors not played him out of position.

Tony was a member of the Signal Platoon with the Tigers and the 4th Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment. In the early 1970s he moved to the Poachers in Münster as the Chief Instructor on the D and M Wing, where he was responsible for converting the Battalion’s drivers and commanders on the AFV 432. An excellent shot putter he was one of the stalwarts of the athletics team for a decade, helping them to a number of Army Finals.

Tony served his final days in the Army with the Pompadours in Colchester and left in 1983, retiring to his birthplace of Fiji. Tony Waqairoba was a professional SNCO and gentleman, who is fondly remembered by his friends and colleagues across the Royal Anglian Family.

WO’D