Deaths Of Islands People

Mrs. V. Langdale

V. Langdale, member of a ■ family of Fiji, died at ey, Sydney, on July 29, aged •s.

Langdale was the daughter , John Phluger, a German planter who settled in the )istrict of Viti Levu a century he married the late Charles t Langdale, a former em of the Colonial Sugar Re- Co.

Langdale is survived by twin hil and Charlie, and another Irian.

Us. Harry Doughty

death occurred in the is recently of Mrs. Harry ty at the age of 85. Mrs. ty was the widow of Mr.

Doughty who served with the Co. for many years as a nith at Ba and Nausori. He i 1952.

Doughty was a daughter of ,rl Rebman and Mrs. Rebman is born at Suva. Her father labour recruiter and made trips to the New Hebrides ig back labour, married at the turn of the 7 and there were 11 children marriage.

“Jimmie” Wilton

of the best-loved Old-Timers w Guinea, Clifford James lie”) Wilton, died quietly in reenslopes Military Hospital, ae, on July 16. None of his rritory friends knew he was until they saw the funeral icement. lad been in Goroka in recent and had been residing since i Cairns. His health was not and he was sent recently Jairns to Brisbane for medical At the funeral service (at e d by Old-Timers Chance, nes, Campbell and Christie) e was given officially as 58; probably was nearer 70. nie Wilton had been in the )ri-s for about 35 years. He >est known to the present tion as a superb road-builder ?as untrained, but a natural er. He built excellent roads in orobe and Highlands Districts, as Wilton, acting for District r lan Downs, who put in that cable highway across the range Goroka into the Chimbu y. Orthodox people said it not be done without a huge -works grant. Downs and i did it without money or equipment—using lines of s, a few scores of shovels, logs : the high forest, and petrol • for the culverts.

Wilton was known in many places —he was mining in Misima in the ’Twenties, recruiting on the Sepik, drilling (with mining engineers Horsburgh and Williams) on the Lower Gira, mining at Wau, road building in the Highlands, soldiering in the jungle against the Japs.

He was called “one of the best”.

Many men of the “time before” will learn of his passing with real sorrow.

It is believed that Mr. Wilton was born in Scotland, and spent some years in Newcastle, NSW.

Mr. R. Schulke

After a prolonged illness, Mr.

Arthur Schulke, head of the Vavau Copra Board, Tonga, died at Vavau on June 17. A native of Prussia, he had lived at Vavau for almost 50 years, since 1913 in his well known residence at Vaimalo.

He is survived by childden in Tonga, NZ and USA.

Mrs. W. E. Wyatt

A highly esteemed member of the Port Moresby community, Mrs.

Jessie Isobel Wyatt, wife of Mr.

W. E. Wyatt and a resident of the Territory all her life, died in the European Hospital, Port Moresby on July 13. She was only 50 years old.

She originally was Miss Jessie Hart; and her parents, Mr. and Mrs.

W. J. Hart, were pioneers of the Territory, who settled in Woodlark Island, about 1911. They lived for a time on Woodlark Island and in Samarai; but eventually took up permanent residence in Port Moresby.

Their daughter grew up and was educated there, and was married in 1931 to Mr. Wyatt, the well known trader, now retired.

Mrs. Wyatt took a leading part in the community life of Port Moresby, and was a prominent mem-

ber of such organisations as the Country Womens Association, the Pre-School Association and the Town Advisory Council. She was president of the CWA Branch when she died.

Mrs. Wyatt is survived by her husband and by two sons and a daughter—Mr. W. E. Wyatt, Mr. R, Wyatt and Miss John Wyatt. She is survived also by three sisters, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Hart— Mrs. E. Barwick, of Port Moresby; Mrs. J. Donaldson Hooper, of Suba tana; and Mrs. J. Grimmer, of Itikinumu.

The Administrator of P-NG, Brigadier D. M. Cleland, said: “The death of Mrs. Wyatt is a sad loss to the Territory. Mrs. Wyatt’s work and interest in the many women’s and other organisations with which she has been associated has been an outstanding example of public ser vice.”

Dr. W. P. Williams

Dr. W. P. Williams, the first West Samoa scholarship student to gradu ate as a doctor (two others have since graduated) died in a car accident in Apia on July 21. He was 29. See page 135.

Mrs. H. Van Pel

The death occurred suddenly from a heart attack on July 24, of Mrs.

H. Van Pel, wife of the popular South Pacific Commission fisheries expert.

A funeral service was held next day in Noumea and was largely at tended; but Mrs. Van Pel will be finally interred in her native Holland.

Rev. Father Petelo Hamale

The death has occurred in the Wallis Islands of the Rev. Father Petelo Hamale, at the age of 58.

Father Hamale was a Wallis Islander and was ordained in 1929. He spent all his life in the Wallis and Futuna Islands and was responsible for the erection of many churches in those areas.

Mr. A. Seo

A Japanese industrialist, well known in New Caledonia, Mr Akira Seo, died in Tokio recently. He was the man who went to Noumea a few years before World War II and established La Society Le Fer which exploited iron deposits at Goro, on the edge of the Plain of the Lakes, Southern N. Caledonia. Mr. Seo originally tried to buy NC nickel for shipment to Japan but was pre vented by the French authorities. It was common knowledge that he turned to iron ore not for the iron but for the small percentage of nickel in the ore. Several hundred thousand tons of ore were exported fn Janan before Pearl Harbour re suited in the seizure of the surface cut mines.

The late Mrs. W. E. Wyatt.