The war club, the tooth and The Times

Did you know that in 1930 the letters page of The Times played a crucial role in the campaign to return King Thakombau’s war club to Fiji to become the ceremonial mace of the country’s House of Representatives?

The tabua given to The Times by Adolph Brewster in 1930. It is a Fijian symbol of goodwill, respect or loyalty and has sacred properties. The tooth is that of a sperm whale.

In 1874 King Thakombau handed over his war club to Queen Victoria as a symbol of the transfer of sovereignty of the Fijian Islands and as a pledge of allegiance. On July 31, 1930 The Times published a letter from Adolph Brewster, a member of the Fijian Civil Service from 1884 to 1910 and a former Governor’s Commissioner in Fiji, in which he appealed for information on the current location of the war club. The letter aroused great interest and a number of letters on the subject were published over the coming weeks.

Left: Brewster’s letter published in The Times on July 31. Right: Brewster’s letter published August 27, 1930.

Following the publication of Brewster’s letter, King George V directed his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, to contact Brewster to assure him that the club was safe at Windsor castle, as Brewster revealed in a letter published on August 27. The King further directed that the club should be returned to the people of Fiji by the Governor, Sir Murchison Fletcher, to be used as a ceremonial mace in the House of Representatives.

A formal presentation ceremony took place on October 3, 1932 when the Governor read the following message from the King:
“Since its presentation by King Thakombau to her Majesty Queen Victoria, this mace has had an honoured place among the Royal treasures in Windsor Castle. His Majesty now returns the mace for ceremonial use in the Legislative Council of Fiji as a visible token of his abiding concern for the welfare of his Fijian people of whose unswerving loyalty he is deeply sensible”
and The Times published a report from its correspondent in Fiji on October 4, 1932 on the ceremony to mark its return.

Left: the report of the presentation in The Times, October 4, 1932. Right: photograph of the mace in the Fijian Legislative Council chamber published on November 23, 1932.

The people of Fiji send Brewster a tabua in gratitude and he passed it on to The Times to thank them for the part they played in airing the matter. The tabua is a Fijian symbol of goodwill, respect or loyalty and has sacred properties. The tooth is that of a sperm whale. To this day it resides in the paper’s archive.

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