Now The Greigs Have
pp. 37-39 · Read in the full issue
A Memorial
For over 100 years there were Greigs on Fanning Island four generations of them in direct descent from the original William, who landed there and took over the island about 1857. When Hugh Greig, the last of them died in 1956, we said it was the end of an era.
IT wasn’t, of course, the end of the story: As long as Pacific history continues to be recorded and read, the Greigs will have a place in it—with memory helped out now by the memorial navigation beacon built at the entrance to English Harbour, Fanning Island.
The beacon has been there now for many months — it was unveiled by Air Vice Marshal T. A. B. Parcelle, CBE (commander of one of the mysterious task-forces that operate around the central Pacific these days) last September. But mail and news travel slowly from those parts. Mr. P. F. D. Palmer, manager of Fanning Island Plantations Ltd. has recently supplied details of the memorial, which in intent is a composite one, although named the Greig Memorial.
The purpose of the truncated pyramid of water-worn beach-rock is to perpetuate the memory of: • Four generations of the Greig family (1857-1956), who owned the atoll and saved it for the British Crown. • The discoverer, a US citizen, Captain Edmund Fanning, of the ship Betsy, who saw and named the island in 1798. • HM ships Dido and Caroline who were instrumental in the annexation and who supported the Greigs in their holdings; and to • Captain English, the first British settler (1848- 1857). after whom the harbour is named. (Over)
Historic Shot
A real honest-to-goodness George III cannon, loaded with grape and propelled by signal flares, was used as a salute at the opening of the Greig Memorial on Fan ning Island. Below is the memorial plaque, which is seen in the bottom picture covered by a flag just prior to the unveiling. Above the flag is the bronze propeller from the schooner "Fanning".
The memorial has, as well, a ractical purpose and shows a fixed hite light for navigational pur ges, and a trigonometrical fix lat is visible from most parts : the atoll and by ships standing f English Harbour. (The memorial in Latitude 3 degrees, 51 minutes, seconds North; and Longitude 159 agrees, 21 minutes, 52 seconds r est).
The cairn is built of water-worn ;ach rock and is 30 feet above ean tide. The construction was rried out by Rakoroa, the step n of Hugh, who died in 1956.
The bronze diver’s helmet on the est was used by Hugh to recover e severed ends of the trans icific cable that had been cut ar Fanning by Admiral von Spec’s lina Squadron in 1914. The wind cheater on top of the pyramid was esented by the Scripps Oceano aphic Institute field-chief, Dr. artin Vitousek; the bronze pro llers, affixed to two of the sides the memorial, are from the )tor-ship Fanning the first wered interisland vessel based on nning, about the 1910-14 period.
Fhe plaque, which is on the shore le, was designed and presented by 's. P. F. D. Palmer, rhere are several versions of how ? first Greig, William, came to tie on Fanning; and two versions the name of his early partner. it the time of Hugh Greig’s death 3 was a grandson of William), tvas stated that William’s partner Fanning (and Washington) was American called George Bicknell, 1 that they had taken over from ptain English. In a version writ l by R. W. Robson (PIM, August,
Ji 9 nni, : o H Wl J ich v, was based on notes supplied to him years ago bv the Walter Gors, who was manager at Fanning for a long time, the partner’s name was King At all events, whatever his name, it was this partner who caused the Griegs a great deal of trouble The partner moved off, and his heirs sold their share in Fanning and Washington (which Gre i g had planted up) to “a man in Suva”.
The man in Suva was none other than our old friend Humphrey Berkeley, Suva lawyer, whose high cost of living got him into the clutches of the shrewd Father Rougier. This particular chapter of the Greig story was told in the Robson article in PIM last August.
[?]ith a garland of frangipanni, tuber roses and [?]rnations presented by Polynesian Club mem [?]ers, Mrs. Ida Campbell, and husband Joe [?]mpbell, recently went back to Fiji after a long holiday in Sydney.— Tele-Photos.