Deaths Of Islands People

:mr. william edward

Hancock

:.rmer senior manager of the on Steam Ship Co. of NZ Ltd., William Edward Hancock, died fi Sydney private hospital on uary 19, aged 62. He was par ;.arly well known in Fiji, where vas USS Co. manager from 1932 £3B. „

Silly” Hancock spent practically

nis life with the Union Co., corn icing as junior in Sydney m and he retired only last Sep tosr, after a stroke. He served in Newcastle, Fiji and Melbourne ire taking up his Sydney post, n Suva, he was a sailing en siast and became a founder and .modore of the Suva Yacht Club, will be remembered there also i popular concert tenor.

Mr. Thomas Chambers

tr. Thomas Chambers, Snr., died Suva in January, aged 83. He was a at Nadroga, Fiji, son of pioneer ana planter Frederick Chambers, [r Chambers was for many years employee of the Colonial Sugar ining Company and he helped lay the CSR tramline between atoka and Lautoka. He was pre eased by his wife but is sur -3d by three sons and two ighters.

Sydney Harry Edwards

Ir. Sydney Harry Edwards, son an old Levuka family, Fiji, died Auckland in January. A son of late S. O. Edwards, one-time ,rden of Levuka, he served at lous times with Morris Hedstrom lited, Robbie Kaad & Co., and rns Philp & Co. before settling NZ about 1924 where he went 0 business with Captain Charles fchbert, also formerly of Fiji.

Captain J. Flynn

Japtain John Flynn, for 34 years h the Union Steam Ship Co., 23 irs as shipmaster, died in Auck id in January, aged 88. He was ■n in Central Otago, NZ, and went sea at the age of 16. A good deal his time with the Union Com ny was in trans-Pacific ships. He ired in 1933.

Mr. Erich Retzlaff

\n old respected German settler Western Samoa, Mr. Erich tzlaff, died recently at Apia, aged after a long illness. He went to moa for the then German Admin ration, in 1906, and his work in illing the first telephone service r the Post Office earned him the moan nickname of “Telephoni”.

Mr. Retzlaff started a cocoa intation at Tanumapua, after iving the Post Office, and later 1 he acquired the larger Puia’a

plantation, near Apia, where he lived out his lifetime. He married, in 1913, Miss Elizabeth Purcell, of Aleipata, and they had two sons Paul (killed during World War 11, near Leningrad), and Hermann (managing director of H. and J.

Retzlaff, Apia merchants and im porters) .

Mr. Robert Vernon

Robertson

“Whitegrass Robbie” was a name known with affection by hundreds of New Guinea and Solomons people—it belonged to Robert Vernon Robertson, who died m Sydney Hospital on January 21, ag A* Victorian, well educated, he served as an Army Lieutenant in World War I. He inherited a hotel from his family but grew restless and went to Sydney, where between the wars he was always to be found among the New Guinea crowd down on leave—planters, miners, Govern ment officials, all of whom became his friends. Finally, in the 1930 s

he went to the Territory himself.

Robertson (he invariably accented the “bert”) was a brilliant man of many parts, generous and com panionable. He was in Morobe District until 1938, mostly with Dick Glasson and Ray Parer. Gold fields oldtimers still recall the day he and Parer crash-landed in a single-engined aircraft practically outside Wau Hotel.

Returning to Sydney, he set up his headquarters at “The Cross” and became guide, philosopher and friend to P-NG folk on leave—his sharp-featured appearance, topped by snowy-white hair (whence derived his nickname), was hailed with delight wherever the “Befores gathered.

If a Territorian, stranger to Sydney, needed anything at all, “Whitegrass” could get it, or fix it, for him. A Papuan planter once wrote of him: “Robbie has the ‘open sesame’ for any hard-to get bookings air, land or sea travel, for theatres, for any shows or what-have-you. He can plunge into the abysmal depths of the Taxation Department and emerge with a clearance in a fractipn of the time required of the uninitiated. He

can fossick out a dozen bottles of local beer from an apparent total aridity. He knows everyone, and everyone knows him”.

It was typical of RVR, after his death from a long and painful illness, that it was found his body was willed to Sydney University and his eyes to the eye bank.

Mrs. Frances Becke

Mrs. Frances Becke, widow of Australian author Louis Becke, a South Seas trader and seaman (at one time supercargo of Bully Hayes’ brig Leonora ) before he wrote a number of successful Islands books and stories, died in UK recently, aged 88. She is survived by two daughters, Alrema and Niya (who was on the staff of PIM in the 1930’5).

Mr. Hector Rankin Wales

Another “old hand” of New Guinea, Mr. Hector Rankin Wales, died in Lae hospital, after a pro tracted illness, on January 7. He was 67.

Born in Victoria, he went to Papua after the first World War, and traded with luggers along the

Papuan coast, between Moresby and Daru, in association with Tom Powell. Then he went to Queens land and engaged in a series of jobs (among which was circus rough rider). In 1927, he returned to New Guinea during the gold rush days and successfully worked the Queen of Sheba claim at Edie Creek. He was mining until the outbreak of the second World War.

A member of the NG Volunteer Rifles, he later joined ANGAU, serving in a small ships unit. He was master of AK9S, now still plying in the Territory as Abel Tasman. After the war, be bought Bulu plantation near Lae and re mained there until he entered hospital a short time ago.

Mr. Wales is survived by Mrs.

Lily Wales and two step-daughters, Phyllis Spencer and Angela Garrick.

His brother, Mr. Baden Wales, is with the P-NG Dept, of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries.

Mr. Allan Young

Mr. Allan Young, originally of Ryde, Sydney, and an employee of the CSR Company from the time he went to Fiji as a boy until re

tirement in 1953, died at Su January 1, aged 66.

In recent years he was Lectric Ltd. and Islands El Suva. First he spent 11 yes Rarawai sugar mill, then in transferred to Nausori mill, he was eventually chief engu from 1942 to retirement.

In 1915, he married Miss Chs Turner, of Labasa, and is su: by his wife, eight sons, and daughters, most of whom a Australia or New Zealand. On Mr. Graham Young, is a reside Bulolo, NG.

Lady Mildred Mjjrri

Lady Mildred Murray, wid( the late Sir Hubert Murray, I Governor of Papua until his In 1940, died in Northampton, land, in January, aged 84. Sh Sir Hubert’s second wife an Miss Mildred Blanche Bloon of King’s County, Ireland, married him in 1930, when sh 54. But she did not like Moresby, and lived there with for only a few brief periods.

Mr. August Batze

Member of a large New G family, Mr. August Batze, oi Industries Ltd., Lae, died in bane hospital on Febraury 4, on leave. He was 50 and had in the Territory since he went from North Queensland witl parents at the age of three. r brothers are residents of William and Adolph (of Lae) Karl (Madang).

Mr. George Saunderi

A Port Moresby builder, wil years residence in Papua, George Saunders, died in Tau hospital, aged 66, on Februa Originally, he was with the : of the Interior before the war returned to Papua in 1945 to John Stubbs & Sons. Late] branched out on his own as a tractor, building Steamships 1 ing Co.’s new premises and < stores in Moresby. He left a w: Mrs. Connie Saunders ar daughter, Mrs. John Nolan, bol the Territory.

Mr. Cecil Hendrick

After an illness lasting over months, Mr. Cecil Hem Regional Stores Officer in the Administration, died in Lae pital, at the end of January, 50, Following plantation experi in the 1930’s in New Britain joined the Public Works Depl Madang and, later, Salamaua one of the first NG men to ei he served in the 2nd AIF, risin captain’s rank. After the war returned to the Territory and charge of Army disposals at later on joining the Stores Dei