Lone Soldier remembered on ANZAC Day celebrations in Vila

Members of NZDF, ADF and BDF stand beside their fallen commerade's tombstone

With services around the world to commemorate the tragic events of Galipoli and the wars that followed on ANZAC Day 2011, a hidden from view Royal Navy sailor was remembered in Vanuatu.

After the main dawn service was held at the Port Vila Cenotaph, the New Zealand High Commissioner, Bill Dobbie led a delegation to pay respect to Petty Officer, Terence A.T Hutchins (RNZN), HMNZS Achilles (RNZN), who died of illness on 22 May 1942.

The Petty Officer aged 25 was offloaded by his ship HMNZS Achilles to a military hospital in Port Vila with Appendicitis but never recovered from his illness and was burried in the small cemetery.

Unlike other New Zealand personnel who were killed in this area of the Pacific, his body was not moved to New Caledonia after the war and has remained in a remote section of the Vila cemetery ever since.