A ‘Haka’ in Honour of Donald Charles Nairn

As a 26-year old major, Don was commanding ‘C’ Company when on 9th May 1979 he was killed in action on the Jebel Aram in Dhofar in the follow-up to a highly successful operation during which his soldiers had shot dead three enemy ‘adoo’ fi ghters. A fourth ‘adoo’ fi ghter had holed up in one of a complex of escarpment caves and as Don sought to identify exactly which cave to assault he was fatally wounded. His death in action was to be the last by a member of the Sultan’s army, coming as it did over three years after the offi cial declaration in December 1975 that the counter-insurgency was over.

Don Nairn in Dhofar in 1977.

On 9th March this year a remarkable honour was granted to a former Royal Green Jackets offi cer who did a SSC with 1 RGJ, Donald Charles Nairn, when all the boys of Wanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand’s North Island performed a special ‘haka’ in his memory.

This was the highlight of a ceremony at which a beautifully framed duplicate set of his medals was presented by his sister, Mrs Bea Rockel, to the Headmaster. As a prelude to this I had given a short presentation about Don’s career in 1RGJ in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Hong Kong during the early 1970s and his subsequent service from December 1976 as a ‘contract offi cer’ in the Frontier Force, a Baluch battalion in the Sultan of Oman’s Army. Don was buried in the Christian Cemetery near Muscat in Northern Oman. In the autumn of 1979 Don’s parents visited Dhofar and were looked after by his Frontier Force brother offi cers and met his ‘C’ Company soldiers. They then moved to Muscat where they were hosted by the Commander of the Sultan of Oman’s Army and received the Sultan’s Bravery Medal. Don had been awarded this posthumously for the successful operation during which he had so tragically lost his life.

Don’s memory is treasured in New Zealand by his family, friends and fellow Wanganui Collegiate School pupils and alumni and his framed medals, along with many documents, maps and photographs recalling his military service, are being safeguarded in the School Museum.

Maj Gen Peter Williams CMG OBE Frontier Force 1976-1978