October 14, 2019
Italian knighthood bestowed on Māori Battalion vet Bom Gillies
Te Arawa has celebrated the granting of Italy's highest honour to Robert Gillies, the last surviving member of B Company of the 28 Māori Battalion.
The award of the Order of Merit was proposed after last year after Italian ambassador Fabrizio Marcelli met the 97-year old at an Anzac Day ceremony last year.
Mr Gillies, better known as Bom, said he was prepared to accept it as a tribute to all young Māori who fought in the Battalion.
Rotorua Lakes Trust chair Sir Toby Curtis says it was an extraordinary gesture by a government that technically was at war with New Zealand when the Battalion landed, and it's a testament to the way Mr Gillies and his comrades handled themselves.
"They didn't go there to just take bullets to fire at them, they took the essence of humanity to relate to those people so we have a better world," he says.
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