First death in battle for 30 years

The soldier killed in action in East Timor on Monday was the first New Zealander to die in combat in almost 30 years.

Private Leonard William Manning, an infantryman shot dead while serving with 2/1 Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, was also the first battle fatality suffered by the UN-backed peace enforcement team in the former Indonesian territory. The last New Zealand soldier killed in action was Private Kenneth Harding of Victor 6 company, also Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, who died in Vietnam on June 24, 1971.

His was one of 37 deaths among the 3890 New Zealanders who served in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, many of them completing several tours of duty.