The BSI's Vouza
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
And Friend
When we visited Headman Jacob Charles Vouza, GM, MBE, at his village about 20 miles from Honiara, BSIP, one Sunday afternoon in March he inisted on putting on his Coro nation chain to have this photo graph taken. With him, outside his house, is Mr. Perry Parks, of the University of Wisconsin, at present engaged in a gravity survey of the Protectorate.
Vouza was born at Roroni village, Tasiboko, Guadalcanal, in 1900 (give or take a year or so), and became a policeman when he was 16. He served be hind enemy lines during the Solomons campaign and won the George Medal and US Silver Star in 1943 for refusing to give information to the Japanese, although tortured.
The MBE came in 1957 for loyal service to the Govern ment. Vouza’s Coronation chain is made of beads, a piece of worked shell and a medal lion of Queen Elizabeth 11. He and his wife were official guests at the Coronation in 1953.
The fact that Mr. Parks was an American automatically gave him the freedom of Roroni village. Although it was obvious that he must still have been in rompers at the time, they all wanted to know what he did during the war.