Who is the British-Fijian war hero depicted in the statue unveiled by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?

Prince Harry unveiled a statue for a British-Fijian soldier during his ongoing Royal tour of Australia and the South Pacific.

The Duke of Sussex unveiled the memorial as he and wife Meghan departed Fiji for Tonga as part of their 16-day tour.

But who is the soldier depicted in the statue?

British-Fijian soldier Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba was killed in the Battle of Mirbat in Oman in 1972 after holding the enemy off single-handedly for hours.

Born in 1942 in Fiji, Sgt Labalaba was recruited into the British army in 1961.

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In 1972, he was part of a nine-strong SAS team based outside Mirbat in Oman on a secret assignment, codenamed Operatio Jaguar, to protect the Sultan of Oman.

On the morning of July 19, 1972, 250 of the best fighters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf (PFLOAG) stormed the port in a surprise attack that left the team pinned down.

Sgt Labalaba, 30, knew that without heavier fire power the unit faced almost certain annihilation.

Despite being shot in the jaw, he sprinted across an exposed 800-yard stretch to reach a 25-pound field gun, which would usually require three men to operate, and held off the 250 insurgents for six hours.

Sgt Labalaba was posthumously mentioned in dispatches for his bravery in battle.

In SAS: Operation Storm, a book recounting the battle, fellow trooper Roger Cole wrote that the fight would undoubtedly have been lost had Sgt Labalaba not taken the 25-pounder.

Sgt Labalaba’s son Isaia Dere Labalaba, 53, was at the ceremony that saw Harry unveil his father’s statue.

He said: “I’m so excited, so happy today. I last saw him in 1971 when he left for his tour of duty. He was meant to come home again within days when he died. I was just four years and 11 months old.

“He was a really family man, my father. It is a great honour that he (Harry) has agreed to do this.”

Sekonaia Takavesi Wakolo, 75, was with Sgt Labalaba when he died and was himself shot in the shoulder.

He said: “We were blood brothers, we stood side by side. It was the last day of our five-month tour.

“We had some rum to celebrate the night before and had packed our belongings and gone to sleep before the handover. It was 4am when the attack started.

“We thought it would be just another skirmish and they would head back into the mountains. But it wasn’t and we were outnumbered.”

He added: “We have campaigned for a long time for a statue to commemorate him. It is wonderful to have a memorial to him here in Fiji.

“It is very important to the Fijian people. We were very proud to serve the Crown so it means a lot to us to have Prince Harry here to unveil it.”

There are currently 1,250 Fijians serving in the British Army.