Death Of R. O. Freeman

mHE death occurred suddenly in Sydney A on June 18 of Mr. R. O. Freeman, who was until recently manager of the Metropole Hotel in Suva.

Mr. Freeman, who was 46, was born at Baulevu, Naitasiri. He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs Osbert Freeman who were very well-known among the older settlers on the Rewa.

Early in the 1939/45 war he enlisted in the Fiji Military Forces and was one of the original officers of the Ist. Battalion of the Fiji Infantry Regiment. When the battalion left Fiji for the Solomons in April, 1943 he had attained the rank of Captain and was in command of B.

Company. It was this Company which carried out the noted harassing action behind the Japanese lines on Bougain ville from a base at Ibu. The withdrawal from Ibu was described by the Allied commander on Bougainville, General O'.

W. Griswold, as “a minor tactical classic.”

By the end of the war Mr. Freeman had become a Major and had been awarded the Military Cross. He travelled to London with the Victory Contingent from Fiji and Tonga as second in com mand.

Mr. Freeman left Fiji recently to join his wife in Sydney.