Former New Zealand Post & Telegraph Department radio operator John Jones, who visited us earlier this year, returned to the Musick Memorial Radio Station with his granddaughter on 9 September 2011.
John had been a coastwatcher on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) during World War 2. He was the first New Zealander to be taken prisoner of war by Japan.
Seventeen of his fellow New Zealanders (radio operators and other personnel) were murdered by Japanese soldiers.
Updates
2012 NZ Post video featuring the last coastwatcher, John Jones
2012: John Jones reflects on plans to create a Coastwatchers memorial in Wellington
In 2014, a memorial to the Gilbert Islands coast watchers was unveiled in Wellington.
John Jones died on 4 Feb 2017, aged 96.
Links
TVNZ: ‘He had the heart of a warrior’ – Kiwi war hero John Jones dies aged 96
Stuff: Last survivor of World War II radio operators in Kiribati dies
Western Leader: Final farewell: WW II coastwatcher dies