Islands

Deaths Of

People

Colonel J. P. Magrane Word was received recently of the death in England in June of Colonel J. P. Magrane, who was deputy Com missioner of Police in Fiji for several years from 1939. He was 67.

Colonel Magrane was a member of the Fiji Defence Force during the war.

He was an Assistant Commissioner and British Resident with the Army of Occupation in Germany after the war.

Mr. Frederick George Smith Mr. Frederick George Smith, manager of Morris Hedstrom’s estate at Laucala Island, Fiji, since 1950, died after a heart attack on August 18. He was 48.

Mr. Smith was born in Fiji and joined Morris Hedstrom’s Levuka branch in 1933. He later served at Ba and Lautoka. From 1944 to 1950, he was with the Kauri Timber Co. at Nadarivatu.

Mr. Smith’s wife, formerly Miss Zillah Whitcombe, died about a year ago. Mr. Smith is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Flora Douglas, of Naqilai, Taveuni, Fiji, and Mrs.

Penelope Leighs, of Christchurch.

New Zealand; and an adopted son Leslie, of Auckland. Three brothers, Walter, Stanley and Herbert, live in Fiji.

Mr. H. G. (Tup) Rennex The death occurred in Cessnock, NSW, early in August of Mr. H. G. (Tup) Rennex, a well-known New Guinea hand. Mr. Rennex, who was 48, was transport superintendent for Bulolo Gold Dredging at the time of his death. He left a widow, Joyce, and a son, Tony.

High Chief Alo Simanu High Chief Alo Simanu, of Fagasa, American Samoa, died on July 30 after a lingering illness. He was a former member of the famous FitaFita Guard and was County Chief of Itu’au County for the past nine years. He is survived by his widow Lei and a daughter, Pito Patricia Lovell, of Honolulu.

Mr. P. J. Twomey Mr. P. J. Twomey, widely known in the Pacific as “the Leper Man”, died in Suva in August. (See p. 63).