FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Rosemary

New Guinea Scholarship Fund First Queensland Winner

Margaret Bird is the winner of the first New Guinea Memorial Scholar ship awarded in Queensland.

Rosemarv was born in Rabaul where her father, the late Mr. Allen Bird, was an Ad ministration offi cer. She was a pupil at the Rabaul European School when she, with her mother and two brothers, was sent away from the Terri tory when the Jap invasion threatened at the end of 1941.

Her father was a member of the NGVR but trans ferred to the AIF and was a mem ber of the 22nd Battalion, sta tioned in Rabaul at the time of the Jap invasion in January, 1942. He was one of the many European residents of New

Britain who were sent away from Rabaul by the Japs on the Montevideo Maru and subsequently was lost with that ship.

Rosemary lives with her mother near Southport, Queensland, and at the time that she won the Scholarship was a pupil at the Southport High School.

Her elder brother, John, also was a pupil at the Rabaul School before he went to Trinity Grammar in Melbourne and later to Slade School, Warwick, and the Bris bane High School. He is now back in the Territory with the Department of Works and Housing.

Rosemary’s younger brother, Robert, was two when he was evacuated from Rabaul; now 12 he is at Surfers’ Para dise State School, in Queensland.

Donations To Fund

FURTHER donations which have been made to the Queensland Division of the Scholarship Fund since the list was last published in January PIM are:—

A son, Herman Robert, was born recently to Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Merkelijn, of Ajamaroe, Vogelkop, Netherlands New Guinea. Mr. Merkelijn was one of the Netherlands advisers at the South Pacific Conference in Suva last year.

£ s. d.

Previously acknowledged 406 12 5 Received from Mrs. Jamieson from activities of NG Club, Brisbane . . 6 12 6 Collection, NG Club meeting. Brisbane, Feb. 10 ... . 1130 Mrs. Elsa V. Millar ... 110 Total £415 18 11