John Gillmore

John Gillmore was born in Te Awamutu on the North Island of New Zealand, the son of Englishman Henry James Gillmore and Gladys Stoddard. His father was a World War I veteran, serving as a paymaster in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. John followed his father’s footsteps in military service, enlisting from Waioru and serving in World War II with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His elder brother David also joined the service and was killed in the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942. While stationed in Fiji, Gillmore met and later married Winifred Madeline Macindoe of Suva in February 1945 and took up residence there after the conclusion of the war.

A clerk by profession, Gillmore was a member of the Suva Yacht Club and was chosen for the first ever Fijian Olympic delegation in 1956 to compete at Melbourne in sailing, alongside fellow Suva resident Nesbit Bentley. He died in Suva in 1978 at the age of 57.