Repatriated soldier laid to rest
Kathy Wright waited 61 years to welcome her brother home.
She remembers the day her family found out her brother, soldier Allister George ‘‘Buck’’ Buchanan, had died while deployed in Malaysia. It was Mother’s Day, 1957.
‘‘Mum was so upset because we couldn’t get him home,’’ she says.
‘‘She just didn’t understand why he wasn’t coming back.’’
On Saturday morning Wright, alongside family and members of the New Zealand Defence Force, laid Buchanan to his final resting place in Wallacetown, Southland.
Buchanan was the only one of the recently repatriated soldiers to be buried in Southland.
He died of heart failure while on deployment in Malaysia with the Special Air Service in 1957.
This week 27 soldiers who died overseas were returned home on an Air New Zealand flight. Families were then reunited with their loved ones in a ramp side ceremony.
The repatriation was part of the New Zealand Defence Force’s Te Auraki project, under which NZDF personnel and dependants who were buried overseas after January 1, 1955, will be returned to New Zealand.
Wright said she was very young when Buchanan was first posted in Korea, but had fond memories of him from between deployments.
‘‘He would send us gifts from Japan . . . tea sets and other things.’’
The Awarua RSA held a guard of honour during the graveside service, with members of the RSA holding the Malaysian, Korean and Awarua RSA flags.
A member of NZDF spoke at the service, welcoming Corporal Buchanan to his final resting place, and providing detail about what Buchanan’s role with the SAS entailed.
His final words during the service were ‘‘welcome home’’.
Karen Murcott, Buchanan’s niece, said her mother was pleased to know her family was reunited.
‘‘She said she felt more at peace that her brother was finally home with his family,’’ Murcott said.