Mat Bailey

Private 39538 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Killed in action, Crete, 23 May 1941

Early life

Matiu Patapu Bailey, known as Mat, was from Pūtiki, Whanganui, the son of Ihaka Bailey and Moari Maraea Bailey (née Graham). He was single and working as a labourer, with his mother as his next of kin. Mat was a first cousin of Porokoru Patapu (Johnny) Pohe, the first Māori pilot in the RNZAF.

War

Mat sailed with the Second Echelon in 1940 and is at the far right of the second row in the 1940 D Company group photograph. He fought in Greece and on Crete. He was killed on 23 May 1941, aged 30, in the battalion’s counter-attack towards Maleme airfield, the same attack in which Nirai Apatu of D Company died.

Remembered

Mat has no known grave and is commemorated on the Athens Memorial. His middle name was printed wrongly as “Patatu” in the official nominal roll, and his whānau corrected it in 2013.

Sources

Online Cenotaph C20533; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; 28th Māori Battalion website; Te Papa PA.000038.

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