Deaths Of Islands People

Dr. E. T. Brennan

The death occurred at his home at Cronulla, Sydney, on August 18 of Dr. Edward Thomas Brennan, DSC, MC, well-known former re sident of New Guinea, where he was Director of Medical Services be tween 1928 and 1942. He had a dis tinguished career in medicine and In the Army and was a popular man among fellow Territorians. His funeral was attended by a great number of past and present residents of New Guinea.

Dr. Brennan was born in Victoria in 1887, studied medicine at Mel bourne University, enlisted in the AIF as a Medical Officer in 1914, was in the Gallipoli landing and served with distinction until the end of hostilities—latterly as Lt. Colonel commanding the Ist Australian Field Ambulance. He was four times mentioned in Despatches as well as receiving the DSO and MC.

Between 1920 and 1922 he was surgeon on HMAS Sydney, and in 1923 went to the newly Mandated Territory of New Guinea as a Medical Officer. In 1928 he became Director of Medical Services in the same Territory.

He married Miss Ruth Todd, of New York, in 1923 and they had three daughters—Elizabeth, ‘ Ruth (Mrs. Cutbush) and Dorothy, Dr. Brennan rejoined the Army

Medical Services in 1941 and was stationed in Port Moresby at the time of the outbreak of war with Japan. Later, he was stationed in Sydney and after the war was a medical officer with the Repatria tion Department. He remained with the Dept, until about 8 months ago.

Mr. E. P. Monckton

Mr. Eric Parry Monckton, late of the British Solomon Islands,

died on August 29, at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. He was 70.

For some years he was with the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. as a chemist in Fiji and Queensland, then went to the Solomons in the early stages of its development in 1909 to pioneer the timber industry in the Shortlands. He received much practical encouragement from Mr. Woodford, the then Resident Commissioner.

He erected, and for a time operated, a timber mill at Faisi,

and continued to carry on the ex port of timber from the Solomons until the Japanese invasion of 1942. He purchased land in the Shortlands, and also leased two islands from the Gov?rnment, on all of which he planted up a con siderable area in coconuts. He suf fered serious set-backs to his efforts

in the two great wars of 1914 and 1939. The Japanese overran his plantations in 1942-43 and destroyed his house, launch, and other assets, and his coconut plantations were badly damaged in consequence. He, in common with others in the Solomons, received no compensa tion for war damage.

He served the Government for two periods on the Advisory Coun cil and gave of his best for the advancement of the Protectorate for 30 years. He was a first-class tennis player, and played in many tournaments in Sydney; he was the best player in the Solomons.

He was highly regarded by all who knew him. Since forced from ;he Solomons by the war, he lived in Sydney. He leaves a widow, tfinna, and son James, and daughter Vlrs. Joan Stackpool. His brother, S. Claud Monckton, now retired md living in Sydney, was adviser

on Native Affairs to the Fiji Gov ernment.

Mrs. Kathleen Devany

The death occurred in Richmond, Melbourne, on August 17, of Mrs.

Kathleen Margaret Devany, wife of Mr. J. F. Devany, formerly of Salamaua, New Guinea.

Mrs. Devany was formerly Sister Murray and a member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service of World War I. She was Matron of the Salamaua Hospital, New Guinea, in the hey-day of the Morobe Goldfields and is re membered with great affection by many of the goldfields residents of those days.

About 1937 she married Mr.

Devany, of Salamaua, and re mained there until the evacuation of 1941. After war service in World War 11, Mr. Devany went into the hotel business at the Victorian Hotel, Richmond, Vic. He and Mrs.

Devany were living there at the time of her death.

Mr. Frank Macdonnell

Probably it has been forgotten now that during the 13 years that the late Frank Macdonnell (he died in March, in Cooktown, aged 69) was Resident Magistrate at Tuft, Papua, he earned a reputation as a planter of trees. He made the natives plant thousands of palms along that coast —to-day, they are his monument —and they have paid handsome dividends. If the natives objected to tree-planting, they were liable to find their way into cala boose, and they planted the trees as prisoners under direction of the RM. They used to call Tufi prison “Macdonnell’s Agricultural College.”

Frank was a son of Surveyor Macdonnell, a very early Papuan pioneer. He left the service in 1926, when he was 41, and became man ager of a coconut plantation in the Ccpnflict group. Then he joined the District Services in New Guinea, and he was DO at Salamaua, Manus, Madang and Rabaul. He retired in 1932, and had lived ever since in North Queensland. He is survived by his sister, Mrs. Vera Yeatman, of Rossville, North Queensland. — (Continued Page 136)

E. q. Monckton.

Mr. J. W. Bambridge

With the sudden death, on August 7, of John William Bambridge— known to all in French Oceania as “Willy”—Tahiti loses an outstand ing figure, especially in the world of local sport. He was born in Tahiti 42 years ago, and he early showed a great keenness for athletics,

and he was an instructor in physical education and one of the founders of the Federation Generale Societe Sportive of French Oceania. He fought under General de Gaulle in World War 11, and was a prisoner of-war. His death at so early an age came as a shock to his manj friends. He was a son of the late Mr. George Bambridge, a former Mayor of Papeete. He leaves a wife and a daughter, Jessie, who is al school in France.

The Rev. Father Boch

The death of Father Boch, whc died in Buka, New Guinea, on Julj 25, was reported in August.

Father Boch, who was 78, went to the Solomons from France in 1908. He translated the Bible intc the Alu language (Shortlands) Through his influence, many nev Mission stations were opened throughout Buka Island and the Buin area of Bougainville, adjoin ing the Shortlands.

Father Boch was in charge of the Roman Catholic Mission in the North Solomons until the arrival ol Bishop Wade, in 1930. He remained during the war, and was taker prisoner by the Japanese.

Mr. Charles Davidson

Mr. Charles Davidson, well-knowr barber at the Suva Defence Club collapsed and died on August 14 aged 78.

He was born in Scotland, and hac been in business in Australia anc New Zealand. He opened a saloon in the Grand Pacific Hotel when it opened in 1914. Since, he several

A recent photograph of the late Mr.

“Willy” Bambridge, with his wife.

times left the Colony “for good” but always returned. He was the only European barber in Fiji and Suva BowliSs a cfub member of the Suva Bowling Club.

Mr J M Nelson

iirt. j. ivi. iNn.ij&uiN The accidental death occurred in Sydney on August 7 of John Marshall Nelson, aged 45, formerly a resident of Rabaul, New Guinea.

He was born in Queensland and went to New Guinea as a small child with his parents. He lived there until after the Rabaul eruption of 1937. He married shortly after and settled in the Sutherland District near Sydney.

He was killed when his motor cycle crashed into a motor truck. He clfildrem and five young

Mrs. J. W. Burton

The death nrenrred in Rvdnev in early July * Mildred BurLn wke the Rev C Dr T W Burton, Of the Methodist Overseas Mission. She had been in ill-health for many years.

Mrs. Burton was a New Zealander and married there in 1902; shortly after, going with her husband to work among the Indians in Fiji, After 9 years they returned to New Zealand and in 1914 were transferred to Victoria, where they remained for 10 years.

They took up residence in Sydney when Dr. Burton became, in 1925,

General Secretary of the Board of Missions.

Mrs. Burton travelled widely with he ? husband overseas and to every mission dlstrict of Australian Methodism.

She lg surv i vevd by her husband, one son and four daughters.

Tvm tt rar-tom , member of the South Sea Evangelical Mission, Mr. Fred Barton, died in the Wewak Hospital, New Guinea, on August 3 af ter suffering a heart attack while stationed at the Maprik Mission.

He was buried at Wewak.

Rev. William Anderson

The Rev. William Anderson, who gave 56 years of devoted service as a Presbyterian missionary in the New Hebrides, died in Ashburton, NeW Zealand - on May 22. He was held in hi £ h esteem by all Eurohi* 10 knew him ‘ The last 30 years of his service were spent on Santo; and, during those years, Mr. Anderson made ma.ny arduous expeditions into the intenor, all on foot, in his attempts to carry his teaching to the wild mountain natives. He departed from Santo, to retirement, in October, 1951. Mr. Anderson made only three visits to Scotland, which he left in 1897. He is survived by his widow, resident in New Zealand.

Mr. W. T. Maltby, Tahiti

rp. the ag| d of 7J o/ m? wilham’ Theodore Maltby ’ He was born in England, and he arrived in Tahiti in 1915, and was married there in the following year. He be came the owner of a large estate in Raiatea.

Captain Reiher

Captain Williarn Reiher, master ar ? d builder of trading craft in the Gilberts, died at Abemama atoll on August 1 after a long illness, Captam Reiher went to the Gilberts after World War I, when Japan occupied the Marshall

Islands, his birth-place. He was of German-Marshalls extraction.

He built the LMS churches at Tamana and Arorae, and many other buildings in the group. The vessel Aratoba (formerly Santa Teretia ) owned by the Tangitang (Co-operative) Society of Tarawa, was built by Captain Reiher in 1938. He was also a recruiting officer for Burns Philp & Co. for labour for Fanning, Washington and Christmas Is., was pilot for overseas vessels in the group, occasional master of local vessels, and pilot for American landings in the Gilberts during the war.

He leaves a wife and a number of children.

Ratu Finau

Buli Cicia, Ratu Alifereti Finau

Uluqalala died in Fiji aged 49 years early in August.

Ratu Finau served with the Fiji Miliary Forces in the Labour Corps during the late war, in Fiji and the Solomons. He was appointed Bull Cicia in 1950, and was a direct descendant of Roko Taliai, Tui Nayau, who welcomed the first Christian missionary to Fiji at Lakeba a century ago.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks

The death occurred in Sydney on September 7 of Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks.

In the ’2o’s she was for a period, sister-in-charge of the Tulagi Hos pital, BSIP.

Mr. J. B. Hicks, also well known in the Solomons (he retired to Albury, NSW, at the beginning of this year) is a son.

Miss Juanita F. Pryke, and Mr.

Roy R. Parr were married in Bris bane, on July 26. The bride has been with the ABC Station 9PA, at Port Moresby, and the bride groom is employed by the Port Moresby Meteorological Office.