William Yee

Yee was born in Zhongshan in China, before moving to Fiji as a child. He attended the Marist Brothers High School in Suva and St Bede's College in Canterbury.^[1] He then studied engineering at the University of Auckland,^[1] and was the first Fijian Chinese to earn a degree in the subject.^[3]

The 1966 general elections were the first in which Chinese Fijians were able to vote. Yee was an Alliance Party candidate in the three-seat General constituency of Suva, and was elected by a margin of 90 votes. In the 1972 elections he was re-elected in the Suva/Central General constituency of the House of Representatives. He was re-elected again in March 1977 and September 1977, by which time the constituency had been renamed Suva/Central.^[4]

In 1975 Yee became chairman of the new Chinese Education Society and worked as school manager of the Yat Sen School.^[5] He remained chairman until 1983, and held the post again between 1987 and 1996.^[5]