Lelean Memorial School: Difference between revisions

Fijian school

Lelean Memorial School
Type	Co-ed, boarding & day students, Methodist Church
Motto	Seek Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding
Established	1942; 83 years ago
Principal	Napolioni Silatolu [1]
Colors	Navy blue, royal blue, sky blue, white
Nickname	Korodredre, Davuilevu Sukulu, Lelean Knights, Blues, Home of the Brave

Lelean Memorial School was established in 1943 and is run by the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma.^{[citation needed]} It is co-located at the Davuilevu Methodist Compound with the Davuilevu Theological College and the Young People’s Department, which runs training for Methodist catechists.^{[citation needed]}

The school is named for Charles Oswald Lelean (d. 14 September 1942), who was a Methodist missionary in Fiji for 34 years.^[2]

In 2025, 1,500 of the school’s cadets participated in a parade in Suva.^[1]

Lelean has won the coveted Deans Trophy for the FSSRU Under-19 competition 14 times, and has drawn five times since it entered the competition in the mid-1940s. It was the first school to have won all the Fiji Secondary Schools’ Rugby Union (FSSRU) Competition trophies on offer in 1952. That record was equalled by Ratu Kadavulevu School in the 2017 FSSRU Competition. Lelean last held the Deans Trophy in 2014. Their previous victory in the Fiji secondary schools’ competition was in 2010, after winning the Deans finals for the third consecutive year since 2008. Lelean also takes part in athletics, netball, soccer, hockey and cricket. The Fiji Rugby Union has established a high performance gymnasium at the school’s Rugby Academy, which is also used by the Tailevu Rugby Union, Naitasiri and Rewa Rugby Unions.

• Lieutenant Colonel Viliame Seruvakula – former commanding officer, 3rd Battalion, Fiji Infantry Regiment

• Jioji Kotobalavu – former Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister, later CEO, Prime Minister’s Office

• Paula Niukula – 9th President of the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. First Fijian Principal of the Davuilevu Theological College. First Masters recipient of the University of the South Pacific. Founder of the Fiji Council of Churches Research Group which evolved into ECREA – Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy.
• Tomasi Kanailagi – 14th President of the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma
• Akuila Yabaki – Director of the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, a prominent civil rights organisation in Fiji

• Colin George, History, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW. Awarded by, University of New South Wales – Australian Defence Force Academy. School of History, 2000. Raicakacaka,’walking the road’ from colonial to post-colonial mission, the life, work and thought of the Reverend Dr. Alan Richard Tippett, Methodist missionary in Fiji, anthropologist and missiologist, 1911-1988.
• Garret, John, To live among the stars, Institute of the Pacific Studies; 1985
• Tippett, A.R., 1954, The Christian (Fiji 1835–1867), Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland
• Baleiwaqa, Tevita, 1996, ‘Josua Mateinaniu/Ko Josua Mateinaniu’, in Thornley and Vulaono 1996:20–30
• Kanailagi, Tomasi, 1996, ‘The Life and Work of Rev John Hunt/Ko Jione Oniti’, in Thornley and Vulaono 1996.
• Meo, Jovili, 1966, ‘Methodist Education/Na Vuli e na Lotu Wesele’, in Thornley and Vulaono 1996:160–76.
• Thornley, Andrew, and Tauga Vulaono, 1996, Mai Kea Ki Vei: Stories of Methodism in Fiji and Rotuma, 1835–1995, Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma.
• Lelean makes Dean history, Fiji Times 22 Aug 2010,
• A New Chapter at 74, Fiji Times, 28 Jan 2012, Radike Qereqeretabua
• Lelean Sings the Blues, Fiji Times, 24 August 2009
• [1], Melbourne Storm, 20 February 2015

18°2′11″S 178°31′36″E / 18.03639°S 178.52667°E / -18.03639; 178.52667