Defence Club
This is a rerun of a story published in Sunday Times on June 19, 2022
INSIDE one of Suva’s oldest clubs at the junction of Gordon and MacArthur St — the Defence Club — memories of Fiji’s colonial past linger in the air. Everything from the polished Oregon flooring to the antiquated photos on the walls, speak the language and tradition of the social elite of the colonial era.
But out of all the curiosities in this heritage haven, nothing is more famous and starkly visible than ‘The Chandos’ bar wooden counter from London. Scarred by carved names of soldiers who fought for Britain in the war, the counter has been a prominent feature of the Defence Club for decades.
On permanent loan, it was originally part of ‘The Chandos’, a below-street bar of the Chandos Hotel in London.
The bar counter’s original home at 29 St Martin’s Lane is nestled close to the popular Trafalgar Square, one of the most bustling squares in London designed in 1830 to commemorate the British victory against the French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Because of that win, the city of Oslo, Norway gives a fir Christmas tree every year to the city of London. The tree is lit on the first Thursday of December in Trafalgar Square and this tradition has been going on since 1947.
During the World War I, which raged between July 1914 and November 1918, ‘The Chandos’ was a popular melting pot and watering hole. It was also a ‘message centre’ for many Commonwealth troops, including Fiji men who served in the King’s Royal Rifles.
History records show that at the outbreak of war, Fiji was home to the largest and most diverse population in the Pacific.
The Secretary of State for the colonies put forward a proposition to ‘raise and equip a force of picked men for active service at the front.’
On December 28, 1914, the British Government announced that the Army Council had accepted ‘sixty recruits from Fiji provided they are British subjects of pure British descent.’ The first contingent from Fiji departed in January 1915 and the second contingent left in July the same year.
It was not until 1917, after campaigns by the influential Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, that indigenous Fijians were accepted to fight for Britain.
The website my.christchurchcitylibraries. com states the Fijian Labour Corps served away from the front lines and in relatively safe roles. Local businesses helped collect funds to raise, train and equip the soldiers. Sir Henry Marks of the Henry Marks & Co Import and Export Company and one of Suva’s four most influential residents, offered £10,000 to pay for fares, and separation allowances of dependants for 100 indigenous soldiers.
The total amount of money raised for the war in Fiji was £600,777. “Groups donated clothes and goods, and the Rewa province even purchased a plane for the use of the Royal Flying Corps,” the website says.
Meanwhile, The Chandos bar counter today is placed within the Defence Club at a place where patrons can sit, have a cold beer and enjoy a bird’s eye view of cars and people going up and down Gordon Street.
For many years it was part of the bar. The names and initials of those soldiers who frequented The Chandos in London were carved into the counter, a custom started by the bar’s regular patrons at the time.
They would do this while at the bar during leave, while serving in France on Attachment to the king’s Royal Rifles.
No Fiji names remain visible today as subsequent over carvings have made them illegible.
The Chandos bar in London suffered damages caused by the wartime bombing of the city. However, during a remodelling work in the 1950s, the bar top was ‘removed and placed in storage’ because it ‘no longer suited the new Spanish atmosphere of the bar,’ the Defence Club’s centennial souvenir magazine notes.
It just so happened, that same year war veterans and Defence Club presidents, Les Lawlor and Len Usher were visiting Chandos Hotel in London.
The men from Fiji enquired about the possibility of purchasing the bar counter from the owners.”
The owners of the Chandos Bar and the brewing firm, Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Coy offered to polish the surface and ship the counter to Fiji, “at their expense, where is remains on permanent loan to the Defence Club,” the magazine adds.
In 1965, some Defence Club members were invited as guests of Truman Hanbury to a special party that was organised at the Chandos.
It is said a place card was used to reserve tables for the very special guests who had journeyed all the way from Fiji for the occasion.
The Defence Club was set up as a gentleman’ club in 1915, its first president being Sir Bickham Sweet-Escott, the Governor at the time. It was established to keep young men away from mischief-making.
“Understandably at the time, patriotism was at unprecedented levels so many of the older members of Fiji’s European community actively encouraged young men to enlist in the Fiji Defence Force and be trained in the use of arms rather than investing time in trifling activities,” a Defence Club literature notes.
It says the club’s constitution was founded on strong military principles and includes an ‘Oath of Allegiance” which all new members agree to upon the acceptance of their membership of the club.
The ‘Oath of Allegiance’ highlights a willingness to serve King and Country in times of need and is a practice still adhered to today. The original Defence Club was approximately the area taken up by the billiard tables, the staircase and the storeroom at the lower level.
The club’s first billiard table was bought in Sydney for 140.30 pounds, paid by Robert Crompton, a lawyer and former member of the Fiji Legislative Council. There was a wellstocked reading room filled with a variety of books and periodicals, that still can be seen read today.
The club used to have bedrooms and bath facilities for use by members. These are not around today.Some of the expansions and refurbishments visible are the result of a 1920s visit to the Nukualofa Clun in Tonga by Mr Lawlor.
He was so impressed with the club facilities there that when he returned he mustered support from the club to carry out urgent renovations saying “If they can do it , why can’t we?”
During the WWII the Defence Club was a popular hangout for American and New Zealand soldiers despite the fact that the club’s supply of alcohol was rationed compared to what was available to them at their respective messes. At the time, the club bar was ‘often stocked with only one bottle of whiskey a day and beer was also strictly rationed’.
“In the 1930s, the chits system was commonly used as a way of getting credit in between monthly pay-days. One would sign a chit for drinks consumed and would then pay off the debt at the month’s end,” the centennial souvenir magazine adds.
The chits system was similar to today’s bar tabs. But the club faced difficulties recovering its money for drinks drunk on credit.
There were times when the chits totalled more than a soldier’s monthly pay packet. So the club had to do away with the chit system in order to pay off the loan it made for the club refurbishments.
Today its antiques and history make it a remarkable and priceless place in the city, apart from the museum and archives, to learn about our past and appreciate our colonial history and rich heritage.