Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. Andre Carlot Mr. Andre Carlot, mariner, planter and member of the local chamber of commerce, died at Erakor Village, near Vila, Efate, New Hebrides, recently, at the age of 65. He was born at Erakor in 190 A Mr, Carlot is survived by his widow, Helene, and their nine children.

Mr. Lauiu John Stanley Mr. Lauiu John Stanley, assistant general manager of the copra and cocoa planter, Western Samoa Trust Estates Corporation, and a com munity leader in the Vaiusu area of Samoa, died in Apia recently, aged 50. The first Samoan to hold his position in WESTEC, he had worked for the corporation for 20 years.

In World War II he served with distinction with the Samoan Defence Force, as a sergeant.

Captain Karl Alfred Tschaun Captain Karl “Trotsky” Tschaun, an oldtime Burns Philp master who, as a pilot, assisted the American forces at the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, died recently in Sydney, at the age of 81.

A tough master who stood no nonsense with his crew, Captain Tschaun put in about 50 years on BP ships on runs in the Gilbert Islands, New Hebrides, the Solomons and New Guinea.

Born at Riga, Latvia, in 1888, he left home about 1904 as an appren tice seaman and for seven years travelled the world on ships, most of them flying the English flag.

In Sydney in 1911, he joined BP’s and was put on runs to the Gilberts.

A couple of years later he command ed a BP inter-island trader in the Gilberts and came to know the tricky atolls of this area well (his ships were the Motua and Muliama) .

In the ’3o’s he was mainly stationed in Sydney but when war was declared in 1939 he resumed a command, on the New Guinea run.

In 1943, American forces planned to retake the Japanese-held atoll of Tarawa and called for men who knew the area. Captain Tschaun did, and was seconded from BP’s to the US Navy, out of Hawaii.

With two other captains he was appointed a civilian commander and took part in the US invasion of Tarawa on November 20, 1943. He remained on Tarawa for several months after the invasion to pilot ships into the atoll’s lagoon.

Back with BP’s, in 1949 he brought

out a new ship, Malekula, from Glasgow, and captained her on NG runs for several years. He fully retired from BP’s only about three years ago, and lived quietly with his daughter in Killara, Sydney.

A master mariner who kept his Latvian accent although he spoke English well, his hobby was collect ing turtle shell especially from the Solomons.

Captain Tschaun married Miss Mabel Roberts, of Killara, Sydney, in 1927. She died about four years ago.

Mrs. Meme Murdoch Mrs. Meme Murdoch, widow of George Murdoch, a Scottish-born pioneer, trader and administrator in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, died recently on Betio, Tarawa, at the age of 85.

The last of three daughters of Captain Randolf, an Abaiang trader of the late 1800’s, Mrs. Murdoch married her husband shortly after his retirement from the GEIC civil service in 1917. The couple had eight children.

Her death brought many of the Murdoch and Randolf descendants in the GEIC to Tarawa for a reunion, before her body was carried on the vessel Tabakea to Kuria Atoll, to the south.

At Kuria she was buried beside her husband in the 80-acre Murdoch family land of Tanginimake. George Murdoch’s tomb is near his old house, which still stands, and looks across to an islet where King Binoka’s old Kuria house once stood in the 1880’s.

Her sons, David, Sam, Jack and George all attended the burial, ac companied by grand- and great-grand children.

George Murdoch arrived off a trader at Abemama in 1882. He joined the GEIC government in 1897 and before he retired acted for a period as Acting Resident Commis sioner. His first wife, Takeiti, died in 1908, at 37. Murdoch died on September 19, 1936, at Kuria.

Mr. Albert Matatia Cowan Mr. Albert Matatia Cowan, boxer.

Cook Islands planter and successful Tahitian businessman, died recently at his home in Papeete, aeed 78. He was born in 1887 at Matavera, a small village outside Avarua, Raro tonga, Cook Islands, the son of Peter Cowan, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Te Konini, a Rarotongan.

Educated at the old Teteora School, Rarotonga, Albert worked in

NZ in a sawmill for several years before returning to Matareva to build up his own plantations. He joined the Cook Islands Expeditionary Force in World War I, serving with the army in Egypt.

In the armed forces he began boxing and when he returned to Rarotonga he continued training and fought many fights, always remaining undefeated.

In the early 1920’s Albert left his plantations and moved to Papeete, Tahiti. He married Tetuanui Ceron, who gave him eight children before she died, and he resumed boxing.

In Tahiti, Mr. Cowan became successful in business, founding what is today one of French Polynesia’s biggest stevedoring and transport groups, Enterprise J. A. Cowan et Fils. He also bought and sold land around Papeete.

Mr. Cowan kept in close touch with his brother, Charlie, 79, still on Rarotonga, One of Albert’s sons, Francis, today heads the Tahiti family company, and is prominent in French Polynesia as an under water fisherman, sailor and naviga tor.

Mr. Albert Cowan remarried after his first wife died, to a Tahitian girl, and left two more children. All 10 children survive him on Tahiti.

The Rev. S.G. Phillips The Rev. S. G. Phillips, a London Missionary Society missionary in Western Samoa from 1930 to 1939 and from 1953 to 1957, died recently in Britain.

Sister Mary Hedwige

Sister Mary Hedwige, a worker for the missionary sisters of the Society of Mary in Western Samoa since 1914, died recently in Apia Hospital. She was 86.

Born at Vechta, Munster, West Germany, she was trained in France before leaving for Samoa in May, 1914. She worked for several years at Lotofaga and Moamoa, before spending 47 years at Savalalo. Sister Hedwige entered Apia Hospital a month before she died.

Mr. Tamaine Ngariu Mr. Tamaine Ngariu died at his home on Mangaia Island in the Cooks on October 17, aged 91; he had served as a Kavana of Tamarua village for most of his life, fought in World War I, and was a church deacon.

He is survived by four daughters, two sons and many grandchildren.

On October 25, his son, Vaineiti, was sworn in as Kavana in succession to his father.

(More obituaries on p. 129)

Mr. William Bates Mr. William Bates, aged 58, died at Rarotonga Hospital on October 15 after a long illness. Well-known on Rarotonga, at the time of his death he was head yardman at Public Works.

From 1925-28 he worked for the Cook Islands Trading Company then started working for the government in 1930, With the exception of an 11 year period when he was self employed as a planter, Mr. Bates worked for the government in various capacities for the rest of his life.

He was a deacon at the Arorangi Cook Islands Christian Church and is survived by 10 children.

Among those at his funeral was the Acting Premier, Mr. T. A. Henry.

Mrs. Alice Lilly Warren Mrs. Alice Lilly Warren, Pitcairn Island’s unofficial midwife for over 50 years, who received the British Empire Medal in 1954 for her mid wifery services, died recently on Pit cairn, aged 91.

Born in 1878, she married George Warren in 1897.

Mrs, Warren delivered Pitcairn babies and she would live in the babies’ home for two weeks after the

life ‘Edie’ Gray was remembered by many for giving a helping hand whenever needed.

After her son, Jack, was killed in an aircraft accident in 1957, Mrs.

Gray lived with his wife, Joan, at Goroka until retiring to Sydney about 1960. Mrs. Gray is survived by a married son, Les, in Lae. Her husband died some years ago.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hennings One of Fiji’s best-known residents, Mrs. Elizabeth Hennings, died at the CWM Hospital in Suva on November 18, after having been knocked down by a police vehicle four days earlier.

Mrs. Hennings, who was 85, had 'become a familiar figure in Suva since selling Naitauba Island in the Lau Group, to television actoi Raymond Burr in January, 1966, Born Elizabeth Vogel in Germany, she was a nursing sister who married Mr. Gus Hennings, the son of William Hennings—who was one of four brothers to settle in Fiji from Germany about 1860. Gus Hennings’ mother was Adi Meri, a Lauan woman of high rank.

Gus brought his bride to live at Naitauba, which she eventually ran for several years after his death in 1955. She was the last person to bear the Hennings’ name to live on Naitauba, although three generations of the family had lived in Northern

Lau and either owned or been as sociated with most of the islands there.

Gus and Elizabeth Hennings had three daughters—Liz, Beau and Mara.

Mrs. Hennings suffered a broken leg and head injuries when she was knocked over by the police vehicle while she was crossing Gordon Street on Nov. 14. After being taken to the CWM hospital, she went into a coma.

A tribute to Mrs. Hennings will appear in PI M’s January issue.

Mr. Lew Friday Mr. Herbert Ernest Lewis Friday, journalist, author and long-time con tributor to PIM, died aboard the Oriana on November 8, while return ing to Sydney from Europe. He was 72. Mr. Friday was born at Warwick, UK, and migrated to Australia and NZ after World War I (for part of which he was a POW in Germany), and worked on newspapers. In World War II he was a war correspondent, based in Noumea. His books included The War from Coconut Square. He leaves a widow, Marie, of Sydney, and a daughter from a previous marriage.

Pastor S. H. Gander Pastor Stanley Herbert Gander, born in Dorset, England, in 1896, and many years active in Papua-New

Guinea, died recently in Newcastle NSW, following a heart attack He was 73.

In 1932 he commenced working for the Seventh-day Adventist Mission In New Guinea where he was prin cipal of the Boliu school on the island of Mussau for two years. He then went to the mainland and opened U P mission work in the Kainantu and Bena Bena district until the outbreak of World War 11, when he and his returned to Australia.

Following the war, Pastor and Mrs. Gander , return ed to New Guinea ai ? d wor ked around ~t he. Western Islands and Madang districts. With tbe arrival of the Mission ship Lehman, they were asked to survey the Sepik River area and for a year they travelled there, contacting the villagers and opening stations along its banks, In 1955, he was appointed to ad ministratiye work at the mission head quarters in Lae. Some five months later he was involved in a serious plane accident which took the life of the pilot, and Pastor Gander was seriously injured. Because of his injuries he spent a year in hospital and was compelled to retire from active service.

He leaves & widow Greta and daughter, Gwen (Mrs. Ken Adair, of Port Moresby), and three grand children.