Photos by Pesi Fonua

A Remembrance Sunday Service to remember the Tongan soldiers who served and fell on the battlefields of the First and the Second World Wars, was held yesterday, 8 November, at a new location at the front of the National Flag Station, Mala’e Pangai.

Crown Prince ‘Ulukalala Tupouto’a laid the first wreath, followed by the Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva, the High Commissioners of New Zealand and Australia, the Ambassadors of China and Japan, and the Honorary Consuls for Germany, Sweden, South Korea, and others.

The Remembrance Sunday Service was first held in Tonga in 1923, during the reign of Queen Salote Tupou III at the Pangai Si’i cenotaph.

According to HMAF historians, during the First World War, 56 Tongan soldiers joined the New Zealand Maori Battalion. A majority of the Tongan soldiers were infantry soldiers, serving at the frontlines in Palestine and France.