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# Face of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/face-of-the-day-1092/
- Published: 2024-11-08T17:30:24.000Z
- Updated: 2024-11-08T17:30:24.000Z
- Description: Sir Robert Gillies, known universally as Bom (Koro Bombom to his mokopuna) passed away on Thursday, November 7, in Rotorua. He was 99.
- Author: Good Oil Staff
- Tags: NZ Politics, Defence, History

> The last surviving member of the Māori Battalion has died.  
>  
> Sir Robert Gillies, known universally as Bom (Koro Bombom to his mokopuna) passed away on Thursday, November 7, in Rotorua. He was 99.  
>  
> In recent years, Sir Bom strongly advocated an anti-war stance, describing in various interviews the futility of war.  
>  
> “Wars are created for power and money … war is only about killing people,” he told Julian Wilcox in an interview for The Hui last year.  
>  
> “It shouldn’t be like that.”  
>  
> He described the memories of his mates from the 28th (Māori) Battalion lingering, every day.  
>  
> “You think about those fullas. The ones who died, almost for nothing. All the wars fought never solved anything. Nothing’s changed.  
>  
> “I think back, what did they waste their lives for? If I had my time over again, what I know now, I would have stayed home. I would have been a conscientious objector. For peace.”  
>  
> He wrote the same thing in an affidavit to the Waitangi Tribunal.  
>  
> Stuff

[Read More](https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360478700/last-surviving-maori-battalion-member-dies?ref=goodoil.news)