The
Last Expansion of the British Empire
by
Thomas F. King, Ph.D.
One
thinks of British imperial expansion as a thing of the 18th and 19th centuries.
By the early twentieth century the British Empire had achieved a sort
of stasis, in uneasy balance with the colonial enterprises of the other
great powers. Its days of expansion were over, and with the end of World
War II of course, it began to dismantle itself, morphing into today’s
Commonwealth.
On the eve of the
War, however, there was one last push into new territory – technically
the expansion of an existing colony rather than the establishment of a
new one, but so like a new colony that it can justly be called the last
expansion of the Empire. This last hurrah, effectively lost to history
in the tumult of world war, is worth reclaiming as a small but poignant
part of British history, and as a memorial to a dedicated colonial officer
who died in its service.
The colonial enterprise
was the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme (PISS), and its martyr was Gerald
B. Gallagher, whose grave monument stands today in the coconut jungle
of an uninhabited South Pacific island, Nikumaroro.
It is on Nikumaroro
that my colleagues and I in The International Group for Historic Aircraft
Recovery (TIGHAR) have crossed paths with Gallagher and the PISS. TIGHAR
is engaged in a perhaps Quixotic quest for the long-lost American flyer
Amelia Earhart, who disappeared en route to Howland Island, about 400
miles north of Nikumaroro, in 1937. For various reasons explained elsewhere,
we think it likely that she wound up on Nikumaroro, dying there not too
long before the island was reconnoitered for settlement as part of the
PISS.1 Gallagher, it turns out, was
involved in the discovery of a human skeleton on the island in 1940, which
may well have been Earhart’s. As a result, we have learned a good deal
about the man, and about the colonization effort he led. Our sources have
included the archives of the Western Pacific High Commission, in the Foreign
and Commonwealth Records Section at Hanslope Park, England, the Barr Smith
Library at the University of Adelaide, Australia, interviews and correspondence
with people who knew Gallagher, notably Mr. Harry Maude in Australia,
Mr. Foua Tofinga in Fiji, and Sir Ian Thomson in Scotland, and our own
archeological fieldwork and observations on Nikumaroro. The more we have
learned, the more respectful we have become, and the more convinced that
Gallagher’s story needs to be told regardless of its association with
Earhart.
The Genesis of the P.I.S.S.
Blessed or cursed
with a memorable acronym, the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme was the
brainchild of the thoroughly remarkable Harry E. Maude, at this writing
still alive and at work in Australia at 95. Mr. Maude and his wife Honor
are among the most respected members of the Pacific historical community,
but Maude was not always a historian. In 1937, he was a colonial administrator
on the staff of the Western Pacific High Commission, which oversaw the
Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Island, the Solomon Islands, and other
British colonies, protectorates, and interests in the western Pacific.
The WPHC had its headquarters in Suva, Fiji, where its head, the High
Commissioner, also served as Governor. Mr. Maude was assigned to the Gilberts
and Ellices and here he became acutely aware of the plight of the southern
Gilbertese.
On an island, the
balance of population and resources is always a matter of great concern;
an island can support only so many people. In pre-colonial times in the
southern Gilberts, population size was kept in check in three major ways.
One method was abortion, another disease, and the third warfare leading
to emigration. The coming of European missionaries and colonizers, of
course, put a stop to abortion and warfare (more or less), and exacerbated
the situation by lengthening lives through modern medicine. By the time
Harry and Honor Maude arrived in the southern Gilberts, the imbalance
between people and land – which translates into food – was getting critical.
So Maude proposed
the PISS, a program to colonize several of the uninhabited Phoenix Islands
with land-poor families from the southern Gilberts and a few of the Ellice
Islands that were in similar straits. Each colonized island, it was hoped,
would in time become economically self-sufficient through the then-profitable
trade in copra (dried coconut meat).
The Phoenix Islands
are a group of eight islands plus reefs and shoals, scattered over about
a quarter-million square miles of the Central Pacific Ocean. Today they
are part of Kiribati (pronounced “Kiribas”), formerly the “Gilbert
Islands” half of the Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The people
of Kiribati – “Gilbertese” in colonial days – are now referred to as
I Kiribati (pronounced “E Kiribas”). In 1937 when Mr. Maude conceived
the PISS, they were substantially uninhabited (as they are today), but
there was evidence that some had significant populations in prehistory,
and several reportedly had sufficient land, water, and resources to make
them habitable. Maude consulted with islanders in the Southern Gilberts
and on a couple of land-poor islands in the Ellices (now Tuvalu), and
found enthusiastic support for a colonizing experiment in the Phoenix
Islands.
In preparing the
PISS proposal, Harry Maude naturally had to visit the islands he proposed
to colonize. A reconnaissance was approved by government, and in October
of 1937 Maude, cadet officer Eric Bevington, and nineteen I Kiribati delegates
visited the Phoenix group. They arrived at their first stop, Gardner Island,
on the 13th and spent the following two days looking it over.
“I shall always
remember that first night in the Phoenix Islands,” Maude wrote. “We lay
in a circle under the shade of the giant buka trees by the lagoon, ringed
by fires as a protection against the giant robber crabs, who stalked about
us in the half-light or hung to the branches staring balefully at us.
Birds were everywhere and for the most part quite tame .… Unfortunately
for them, both the crabs and birds were very good eating, and we gorged
ourselves on a diet of crabs, boobies and fish.”2, 3
The largest of the
Phoenix Islands was Canton (now Kanton). During World War II it would
become the site of both British and American airbases. In the 1930s the
U.K. and U.S. were in heavy competition for Canton as a possible flying
boat base for transpacific commerce, and in 1937 nearly fell into a naval
engagement over it. Between its uncertain political fate, and its lack
of coconut trees, it was not a very attractive venue for settlement, and
it was never colonized as part of the P.I.S.S.. Several other islands,
such as McKean, Birnie, and Phoenix Islands, were too small and resource-poor
to be considered for colonization. Three islands were given serious attention
by the reconnaissance party: Sydney, Hull, and Gardner. The I Kiribati
delegates were especially enthusiastic about Gardner; they associated
it with Nei Manganibuka, a legendary ancestress who had come to the Kiribati
home islands from a land with many buka trees that lay somewhere in the
direction of Samoa. That island was called Nikumaroro in the legends,
and thus Gardner Island became Nikumaroro. Sydney became Manra after a
legendary ancestral place, and Hull became Orona, a Polynesian name borrowed
from Niue Islanders who had worked coconut plantations there years before.4
On 2nd November 1938,
the PISS was approved by High Commissioner Sir Arthur Richards, who requested
that Maude accelerate implementation. Maude set to work with energy, and
by early December had purchased supplies, arranged for shipping, settled
legal affairs, and was off to collect the first group of settlers. Enthusiasm
for the scheme continued to run high in the southern Gilberts:
No difficulty
is being experienced in obtaining settlers, even at a few hours notice,
and care is being taken to choose only those so notoriously poor that
they would inevitably be included in any list based on relative poverty.5
Manra (Sydney) and
Orona (Hull) both had substantial stands of producing coconut trees, but
water resources on Orona were uncertain. Nikumaroro (Gardner) had only
111 coconut trees, the remains of plantings started there in the 1890s
by John Arundel, a notable Pacific entrepreneur, but allowed to go fallow
when Arundel’s attentions turned to phosphates early in the new century.
So the initial plan of occupation called for a small group of settlers
to be placed on Orona while the bulk of the party was settled on Manra.
Nikumaroro would not initially be settled by potential colonists. Instead
a ten-man working party was placed there to find water, establish a village,
clear native vegetation, and plant coconuts.6
Settling the islands
was not just a matter of moving people there and leaving them to their
devices. The islands had to be made habitable not only by locating and
developing sources of water but by constructing houses and other facilities.
Coconuts had to be planted and tended, and before that could happen the
indigenous vegetation had to be cleared and burned. Copra drying sheds
had to be built on islands with bearing trees. The land had to be divided
equitably among the settlers, who themselves had to be organized, or encouraged
to organize themselves, into functioning communities – no mean feat considering
that they represented unrelated families from several different islands.
Governmental institutions had to be established, and that required the
construction of administrative centers, dispensaries, and jails. Economic
institutions like cooperative stories had to be organized, stocked, and
subsidized for the interim until the settlements became self-sufficient.
The first few months
were tough and chancy, particularly on Nikumaroro where water was found
to be very scarce. Descendants of the first Nikumaroro settlers – who
live today in a village called Nikumaroro in the Solomon Islands – still
sing of the “great search for water” that preoccupied their ancestors.
But eventually ground water was found, wells were dug and cisterns constructed,
trees were planted, and the colony – on all three islands – looked to
become a going concern. Some of the Nikumaroro working party members went
home while others remained and were joined by their families. Orona proved
to have sufficient water and its settlement grew, while two villages were
established on Manra and work began on marking out land parcels for assignment
to permanent settler families.
Harry Maude bore
the official title Officer in Charge, Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme.
His job involved shuttling back and forth between the Phoenix settlements
and the southern Gilberts, organizing immigration parties, arranging transport,
getting supplies and seed coconuts, supervising transportation, and handling
a myriad of administrative details. On-site in the Phoenix Islands, leadership
fell to his assistant, a cadet officer named Gerald Gallagher.
Gerald
Bernard Gallagher
Born
July 6th, 1912, Gerald was the son of Gerald Hugh Gallagher, a doctor
in the West African Medical Service, and Edith Gallagher. He attended
Stonyhurst College, Cambridge University (Downing College, where he rowed
crew), and St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School before joining the
Colonial Administrative Service in 1936. At the time of his application
for appointment in the Service, he was “studying agriculture on farm with
Mr. G. Butler, Maiden Hall, Bennets Bridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.”7
Photo
courtesy Deirdre Clancy.
Gallagher was posted
as a Cadet Administrative Officer to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony
on 30th September 1936, subject to the completion of training at Cambridge.
On 5th July 1937 the High Commissioner, WPHC was notified that Gallagher
had been “finally selected for probationary appointment” and would be
en route to the islands shortly. Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony Resident
Commissioner J.C. Barley advised London of his arrival at Ocean Island
on 21st September. He received his official appointment as Deputy Commissioner
from High Commissioner Sir Arthur Richards on 3rd June 1938.
Gallagher had some
difficulty learning the I Kiribati language. He “sat for examination”
in March of 1937, and “failed to obtain the requisite percentage of marks.”
However, the Examination Board concluded that “a few months in a district
will enable him to pass in all subjects without any difficulty.”8 He
was assigned to Funafuti and began to learn Tuvaluan, but was “strongly
advised” by other officers to learn I Kiribati, which
was regarded as “incomparably more useful as a general rule to officers
in this colony.”9 He was popular
in Tuvalu, however, and when he was taken to Suva in July of 1938 for
the treatment of severe tropical ulcers he had developed, the people of
Funafuti asked that he should remain.10
By September, however, with his ulcers presumably gone, he had been assigned
to the PISS as Harry Maude’s second-in-command.11
In December he sailed with Maude and the first group of colonists to the
Phoenix Islands, where he remained to supervise development while Maude
returned to the southern Gilberts to handle the “home” end of the operation.
Late in 1939 Maude became ill and could not continue in his oversight
role; he was subsequently reassigned to Pitcairn Island. With his departure,
effective 13th July 1940, Gallagher was appointed Officer in Charge, PISS.12
Getting the Colony on its Feet
Together with the
bulk of the first settlers, Gallagher established himself on Manra. Here
and elsewhere he had the assistance of Jack Kimo Petro (sometimes called
Kimo Jack Pedro), a half-Tuvaluan/half Portuguese engineer and artisan
of considerable skill and energy. On each island, too, his oversight was
shared with an island magistrate and other government officials selected
from amongst the colonists. With greater or less individual enthusiasm,
all set about making the Phoenix Islands their home. Gallagher’s quarterly
progress reports, filed with the Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert
and Ellice Islands Colony, recount their accomplishments, setbacks, and
adventures:
There has been
considerable activity in the Phoenix Islands during the quarter ended
the 31st March, 1940. Three hundred and eighty three persons have now
been landed on the three islands of Gardner, Hull, and Sydney and, of
these, three hundred and fifty four are permanent settlers. The settlement
of one island, Sydney, is now completed and, with the arrival of some
twenty more families, Hull Island will have reached the same happy state.
About one hundred relatives of present settlers have also to be transported
from the Gilbert Islands.13
Manra (Sydney)
Island: Work during the quarter has been principally confined to the
all important, if a little monotonous duty of setting out land holdings
and endeavoring to ensure that each native gets a suitable allotment
of land. Unfortunately, the non-delivery of certain surveying equipment
ordered nearly eleven months ago will necessitate nearly all of this
being done again .... Since many measurements, as at present recorded,
have had to be made with a length of one inch rope and a two foot carpenter's
rule.14
Steps are being
taken to endeavor to counteract what appears to be a very heavy infant
mortality rate.... Four months ago, this appeared to be well over
fifty percent and it was reported that this was very largely due to incorrect
care of the infants by their mothers. Women on each island were therefore
encouraged to meet together and form "Women's Committees" with
a view towards helping one another in baby welfare. One hundred copies
of a book written by Mrs. G. H. Eastman of the London Missionary Society
were purchased and distributed....15
Another task which
has been accomplished, certainly the most difficult and, in many ways
the most important task yet undertaken, has been the allocation, by
the council of old men, of sitting places in the new Maneaba. The battle
over this raged for several days and it appeared as if actual bloodshed
was only avoided by dint of a decision that nobody should occupy the
seat in the Maneaba which they were wont to occupy in the Mother islands.16
The Maneaba is the
traditional meeting house in an I Kiribati village. It is where all important
decisions are taken by the village elders, after a discussion that is
highly structured with reference to the boti (“boach”), or seating position,
of each family head. As Gallagher recognized, nothing was more important
to the stability of the community than to solve the problem of who would
occupy which boti. Since the colonists were drawn from different islands,
there were overlapping rights to particular boti, and there no traditional
models upon which to resolve the matter.
According to Kenneth
Knudson of the University of Oregon, who studied the Manra community in
the 1960s, Gallagher gave himself too little credit for settling the question
of boti rights:
Gallagher finally
settled the dispute by suggesting that the traditional boti system be
abandoned. Instead each household was to be given its own place to sit,
with no one being allowed in the place he had been accustomed to in
the Gilberts. This was accepted. .... In honor of Gallagher, the maneaba
was named "tabuki ni Karaka" or "Gallagher's accomplishment."17
Before he turned
over the reins of command to Gallagher, Harry Maude made an extended visit
to the settlements, and on Manra
I was very pleased
indeed by the way in which the little community on Sydney had developed,
led by the enthusiasm of Gallagher. .... Where before we had to cut
our way through thick brush, two prosperous villages 18
were now situated, with neat and attractive homes fronting both sides
of the broad road. To the south of the villages had been built a large
school, where the children received daily instruction from a full-time
master; to the north lay the island government station, with its offices,
storehouses, homes for the resident officials, and two small gaols,
which happily still remained untenanted. Close to the government station
was the hospital with its Native Dresser, facing the sea, and the new
transit quarters for the visiting European officers. In the centre was
a large cistern, which provided water for the hospital and an emergency
supply for the whole island in the unlikely event of the well water
supplies failing. All around were evidences of peaceful progress ...
and ... general contented well being ....19
By 5th July 1940,
when Gallagher composed his progress report for April–June, he was ebullient
about the settlement scheme's prospects:
There have been
no very startling developments and yet, on the other hand, the usual
disappointments and set Back.ks have not been experienced. Perhaps this
latter phenomenon is only the corollary of the former and the present
calm us but the overture to yet another local storm. Fair weather or
foul, however, the settlement scheme has now set a steady course for
the calm waters of success and prosperity which can be seen to lie ahead.
If the sails continue to be filled with the sweet breath of goodwill,
hard work and determined effort, it will now take much more than a few
local set Back.ks to wreck a venture so well begun.20
In late 1940, with
some 672 settlers in residence on Manra and Orona, with villages and government
stations in place, the institutions of governance established, and coconuts
being cut and processed into copra, it was Nikumaroro’s turn. A large
contiguous tract on the southwest (lee) side of the island had been cleared
and planted, a 20,000 gallon cistern was in place, wells were producing
water, and all was in readiness for Nikumaroro not only to join the Phoenix
colony, but to become its focal point. Gallagher had chosen it to be the
government centre, and in late September he personally relocated there
from Manra.
The
Model Island of the Phoenix
On Nikumaroro Gallagher
set out to create, in the words of High Commissioner Sir Harry Luke, “the
model island of the Phoenix.”21
As on Manra, there were obstacles to be overcome – especially as wartime
needs cut more and more deeply into available shipping and supplies. But
Gallagher and his I Kiribati colleagues soldiered on, as documented in
his progress reports, in the accounts of others, and in the archaeological
evidence that TIGHAR’s work on Nikumaroro has found.
During the quarter,
work was commenced on the construction of the skeleton of the Government
Station .... Work was also commenced on the rather formidable task of
clearing away the rocks and tree roots which have to be removed before
the Station site can be leveled ... [and] on construction of the Rest
House which, it is hoped, will be completed before the end of November.22
To complete this
settlement, it is now necessary to arrange for the transport of some
eighty new settlers and their families, as well as about ten thousand
cubic feet of cargo ... but the vessel was unable to obtain the necessary
supplies of fuel oil and had to lie idle at her home port.23
The second half
of the quarter was marked by severe and almost continuous North-westerly
gales, which did considerable damage to houses, coconut trees, and newly
planted lands. Portions of the low-lying areas of Hull and Gardner Islands
were also flooded by high spring tides, Back.ked by the gales, and, it
is feared that many young trees have been killed.24
A new flagstaff,
69 feet high, was completed and erected ... and a section of the old
temporary flagstaff was very suitably incorporated in the little church
which the more devout or, at all events, less indolent, labourers were
then erecting in their spare time.25
Unfortunately,
very soon after the last house had been erected, the wind swung round
to the North-west and it was soon obvious that the wet season had begun.
With very little protection from the newly planted coconut trees and
bereft of the windbreak formerly afforded by the "buka" trees, the gales
managed to play havoc with the village in the first few days.26
Work on Gardner
Island has been directed mainly towards the completion of the clearing
and levelling of the Government Station area, the construction of roads
and paths and the erection of a properly constructed latrine wharf to
replace the sundry temporary structures swept away by the December gales
.... Work was also commenced on the demarcation and plotting of landholdings
on the South-west side of the island and some twenty of these lands
have been taken over by labourers who intend to remain on the island
as settlers.27
At
right is a map of Nikumaroro showing the location of the colonial village
and Government Station, the names and boundaries of major land units as
assigned by the colonists, and major geographic features. The landholdings
to which Gallagher referred in his 1941 report cited above were apparently
those on Ritiati and Noriti, southeast of the village. As it turned out,
however, although the work was “commenced,” it was not carried
very far before unforeseen events interceded. (Click on the
little map to open a larger version in a new window.)
What was carried
forward, as indicated in the Progress Reports, was construction of the
Government Station and colonial village, later called Karaka after Gallagher.
Karaka, or rather the Government Station at Karaka, is now Nikumaroro’s
most distinctive archaeological site.
The rendering
below is based on contemporary air photos, field observations, and descriptions
by Sir Harry Luke in 1941 and administrator Paul Laxton in 1949, and shows
the major structures of the Government Station as of now.
The centerpiece
of the Station was a parade ground about 65 meters on a side, with a centrally
stepped flagstaff. The parade ground was apparently clear of trees and
paved with crushed white coral. Seven-meter wide roads ran around three
sides of the ground, lined with curbs of small coral slabs; the south
side ended in a low, dry-laid coral wall through which passed the road
to the boat landing. This road, too, named “Sir Harry Luke Avenue” after
the High Commissioner, was also seven meters wide, beautifully leveled,
and lined with coral curbs. Facing the parade ground on the east side
were two large buildings on concrete platforms – probably administrative
structures or perhaps official residences. More ephemeral structures lined
the north and west sides, identified by Laxton as including the village
carpenter’s home and shop, the boat house, and the school. A substantial
concrete-based structure stood near the southwest corner, most likely
the dispensary. The wireless station stood on the shore of Tatiman Passage
north of the parade ground, where it had line of sight to Ocean Island,
the administrative centre of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. The
village itself was south of the Government Center. A typical residential
site included a sleeping house and a separate cookhouse, built on the
ground or elevated on coral blocks, each building about five meters on
a side with pole corners and a thatched roof.
Certainly the most
impressive building in the Government Station was the “Rest House,” which
served both as Gallagher’s residence and as quarters for visiting dignitaries.
Sir Harry Luke describes it as he saw it in late 1941:
... built entirely
of native materials, like Holland's and Steenson's at Tarawa, airy,
spacious, and far and away the best type of house for Europeans in this
part of the world.28
Beyond it the
house already showed glimmering lights, and we found our baggage sprawled
around ...29
Gallagher himself
provides more detail about this house:
This house is
considerably more ambitious than that constructed at Sydney Island and,
although smaller, is modeled after the Native Lands Commissioner's house
on Beru Island .... It is hoped to furnish the main living room of the
Rest House with furniture constructed entirely from locally grown "kanawa"
– a beautifully marked wood which abounds on the island and is being
cut to waste as planting proceeds.30
And Laxton says:
The house had
been built by Jack Kima (Petro) in the early days of the settlement.
It has a concrete floor throughout, and is perhaps twenty-five by sixty
feet, the whole under a tall thatched roof carried on te non and pandanus
poles. The centre space is divided into three rooms of approximately
equal size by partitions eight feet high made of the centre ribs of
coconut leaves, called te ba, leaving a four foot varanda all round.
An office stood off the west side on the north end, and a balancing
structure on the southern end housed the bathroom, lavatory, and washroom.
An American lady who had visited with us earlier when the house had
been unoccupied for some time, had proceeded to the lavatory, which
is of the 'thunder-box' variety and found it full of dynamite, having
been allocated by the island government as an explosive store. This
adjusted, she later washed in the neat and impressive handbasin, with
tap, plug and all, mentally apologising for reproaching the British
with lack of push-pull sanitation; on removing the plug the water gurgled
happily away, emerging immediately around her feet. A bucket should
stand below to receive the waste. These and similar details had been
squared away before our arrival, and the kitchen, too, a corrugated
iron roof outhouse, was ready for action.31
Below
are photos of the Rest House from 1941 (left) and 1989. The
corrugated iron cookhouse remains intact, but the wood and thatch superstructure
of the house proper is gone, apparently burned to judge from the charred
beams and posts lying on the concrete floor.
|
|
What remains is
a U-shaped concrete slab with the charred remains of eleven support posts
set in its edges. The south corner lacks a post, being supported by the
building’s most remarkable feature – the “thunderbox lavatory” referred
to by Laxton. This is a rectangular concrete structure, about two by three
meters with walls about 30 cm. thick, containing a claw-footed bathtub
and perhaps other facilities, obscured by a fetid mass of decaying coconuts
and fronds.
Foua Tofiga of Tuvalu,
a friend and colleague of Gallagher’s who visited the island in December
of 1941 with Sir Harry Luke, described the working of the “thunderbox”
lavatory for us. As Mr. Tofiga explained it, the walls were built strongly
to support a tank, into which water was pumped by hand so as to flow by
gravity to the taps below.32 The
tank has disappeared (though three galvanized iron tanks lie next to the
cookhouse), but pipes and parts of a handpump still lean against the southeast
wall of the “thunderbox.” The Rest House’s thatch or mat walls must have
covered the concrete walls of the lavatory, which are quite invisible in the 1941 photograph.
The Rest House is
the only government structure on the square that is not aligned parallel
to the peripheral streets. In fact it is on a diagonal, with a short walkway
running out to the road. The main entrance to the house was apparently
in the inside center of the “U.” Around the northeast and south sides,
and probably once extending around the north side, a slab-lined pathway
may be the remains of the veranda that Laxton refers to. Beyond this to
the northeast is a perfectly rectangular depression, perhaps a formal
version of the sunken gardens where I Kiribati grow taro and other root
crops referred to as babae. From the house, the view across this landscape
feature to the lagoon beyond must have been stunningly beautiful, especially
at sunrise and sunset.
Beginning of the End
Thus in early 1941,
Gallagher could look out from the Rest House veranda on Nikumaroro, Back.k
on two years of high accomplishment, and forward toward a mature and productive
new colony. But neither Gallagher nor the PISS were destined to survive.
With war raging in Europe, and the Battle of Britain in full swing, Government
had little time for far-flung expansions of the Empire, and it became
more and more difficult to find the shipping and supplies needed by the
fledgling colony. After less than a year on Nikumaroro, Gallagher received
a telegram from WPHC Secretary Henry Harrison Vaskess. The telegram advised
him that the colonial ship Nimanoa was to sail for the Phoenix
Islands about 3rd June, 1941 to convey stores. Vaskess proposed that Gallagher
travel aboard Nimanoa to Beru in the southern Gilberts to select
and transport the "final batch of settlers."33
The Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Colony recommended
against this, citing shipping uncertainties,34
but on 16th June the High Commissioner, Sir Harry Luke, notified ResCom
David Wernham that Nimanoa was expected on the 22nd with Gallagher
aboard. Wernham replied with a question: was Gallagher coming on to Ocean
Island or going to Beru? Sir Harry replied:
Gallagher will
remain in Suva and later embark on vessel undertaking distribution of
coast-watching personnel and equipment.35
By this time, of
course, Britain had been at war with Germany for over a year and a half.
Japan had not yet entered the war, but it was expected to, and the Empire
was beginning to establish its network of coast-watchers across the islands
of the Pacific. Sir Harry had decided that Gallagher was to play a role
in this preparation for war; he was
... to explain
to natives in each island object of coastwatching, make necessary arrangements
with Native Governments and natives and enlist their assistance.
This was only a
temporary assignment, however.
He will then take
charge of settlers and proceed with them to the Phoenix Islands. He
will probably visit Ocean Island in Viti but only for period
of stay of vessel there.36
The voyage in Viti,
another colonial vessel, would be Gallagher’s last. Ironically, one of
the last things he did before sailing was once again to sit for his examination
in I Kiribati. This time he passed.37
The Voyage of the Viti
Foua Tofinga, at
the time employed in Sir Harry Luke’s office, recalls Gallagher vividly.
He describes him as a man of great energy and humility, a man of the people
who worked side-by-side with his I Kiribati and Tuvaluan colleagues in
whatever endeavor they were assigned to perform. Harry Maude has described
Gallagher as “indefatigable”38
and Tofinga’s description is consistent with Maude’s. Tofinga assisted
Gallagher in loading Viti with supplies for the coastwatchers.
This had to be done quickly and in secrecy, he says, and according to
a very strict system. The equipment and supplies were in essence palletized,
everything for one island going in one set of marked containers, everything
for another going in another. Packing and loading it all was a tremendous
logistical challenge considering the time constraints and need for secrecy.
Tofinga recalls Gallagher working through the night with him and others
to complete the job on time for Viti to load her coastwatchers
and set sail. Tofinga did not sail with Gallagher, but Gallagher’s friend
and colleague, Dr. Duncan Campbell McEwan (“Jock”) Macpherson, did. This
was to prove fortuitous for our understanding of Gallagher, if not for
Gallagher himself.
The Viti
discharged coastwatchers and their equipment at islands in Tuvalu before
sailing on toward the Phoenix Islands and the resumption of Gallagher’s
work. There is no evidence that he had been able to pick up any more colonists
for Nikumaroro, but he doubtless looked forward at least to getting "home"
and continuing the clearing, planting, and assignment of lands.
On 20th September,
however, Sir Harry sent Gallagher a coded telegram:
For your personal
and secret information ..., there is to be a change ... in the holders
of the posts of Resident Commissioner and Secretary to Government at
Ocean Island. Garvey is proceeding in John Williams to take over
... and act as Resident Commissioner .... I would like you to accompany
Garvey ... in order to act as Secretary to Government. Telegraph your
views urgently.39
A step up in the
career of a rising young star in the colonial service. But Gallagher did
not reply. Sir Harry sent follow-up telegrams, but the response, on 24th
September, was from Dr. Macpherson:
Regret inform
you Gallagher has been very ill since Saturday 20th. Symptoms which
are those of acute gastritis have not abated and are being much aggravated
by sea conditions. Patient also suffering from severe nervous exhaustion
due to constant strain and worry present assignment in pursuance of
which he has not spared himself.... I consider he is quite unfit to
undertake strenuous secretarial duties and present and should remain
quietly Gardner Island where his presence is also much needed...40
Death
on Nikumaroro
Sir Harry promptly
suggested that Gallagher return to Suva for treatment, but by this time
Viti had arrived at Nikumaroro. On 26th September Macpherson reported
that Gallagher had been ashore 40 hours, but was very weak and suffering
from "mental prostration."41 Then
came a telegram from Viti's Captain:
Regret inform
you Gallagher very low. Macpherson operating now.42
And then from Macpherson:
Gallagher suddenly
became much worse about noon today and symptoms of acute obstruction
became apparent. Operation imperative and with his full consent I explored
abdomen this afternoon. Early signs peritonitis apparent. Obstruction
due to old adhesions.... Fear gas gangrene. Prognosis very grave indeed
and I recommend you inform parents accordingly.43
And then –
Deeply regret
inform you that Gallagher died 1206 a.m. 27th. Awaiting any instructions.44
A series of telegrams
followed in which Sir Harry notified the Secretary of State in London
and Gallagher’s colleagues, expressing his grief at the loss of one of
the Colony’s “most devoted and zealous officers who never spared himself
in bringing the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme to successful conclusion.”45
Macpherson remained on Nikumaroro until the 28th, arranging for Gallagher’s
burial and the disposal of his effects and generating a good deal of correspondence
in the process. All concerned, including the crew of Viti, sent
their condolences to Gerald’s parents, and there was a bit of a flap when
Wernham transmitted these expressions outside channels.
Post-Mortem
A separate, thick
file in the WPHC archives at Hanslope Park is given over to documents
generated about Gallagher after his death. Macpherson provided a detailed
accounting of how he had handled Gallagher’s effects on Nikumaroro –
shipping most on Viti but honoring Gallagher’s wish that his Tuvaluan
canoe and various household goods be given to Aram Tamia.46 Harry Maude wrote Sir Harry on behalf of himself
and Honor:
We were both terribly
upset to hear the news about Gallagher – what a blow it is to the Gilbert
and Ellice, as he was by far the best man we had. It was some time before
we could realize that he was no more. He was the only officer of the
pioneering type in the Colony and now that he has gone it is difficult
to see who can ultimately take over ...47
The eulogy spoken
by Lt. Commander Mullins at graveside on 27th September is preserved in
the file, ending with:
He lies buried
where he would wish to be – near the flag which he served unto death
– on the island, the settlement of which he was the founder – among
the people he loved and for whose welfare he worked without ceasing.
God grant him peace.48
Correspondence between
Sir Harry and Harry Maude document their agreement that Maude would collect
money for a memorial plaque on Niku.49
A letter from Sir Harry to Gerald’s mother, Edith Gallagher, expresses
his sympathy and grief.50 Mrs.
Gallagher’s gracious response is in the grand tradition of the British
stiff upper lip.51 Fate and the
War were hard on Mrs. Gallagher; in another letter to Sir Harry several
months after the first, she mentions that:
I have had another
great sorrow– my younger son Terrence was killed in Malta during the
very heavy air-raid there on Saturday March 21st.... Life’s road will
seem very long and drear without the companionship of these two beloved
sons, but they were both gallant lads and I must try to carry on bravely
– they would not wish it otherwise. But oh, the loneliness and sadness
of it all!
She concludes:
My heart lies
buried in two islands now – Gardner and Malta. God grant that the war
will soon be over with all its suffering and tragedy.52
Terrence’s death
was not only a sorrow for Mrs. Gallagher; it complicated things for the
WPHC, because Gerald had named Terrence the executor of his will.53 This was eventually worked out through the good
offices of Harry Maude. Gerald’s effects turned out to be remarkably substantial
– forty tennis shirts with collars, three sports coats, several full
suits, a tennis racquet, a well-equipped toolchest, a flyer’s helmet and
goggles, photographs and negatives, two wireless sets, two canoes, a fishing
rod, a Colt .22 automatic, four brass ashtrays, two butter pats. All this
was meticulously recorded in two partly overlapping inventories.54
Macpherson’s
Story
Perhaps the most
remarkable, and eloquent, document in the WPHC file is a thirteen page
memorandum to Vaskess from MacPherson, detailing the events surrounding
Gallagher's demise. It is far too long to reproduce here in full, but
a few excerpts will, perhaps, capture its flavor.
He was ... suffering
from a certain degree of physical and mental exhaustion owing to his
complete absorption in the innumerable preliminary arrangements necessary
for carrying out so complicated a programme as that marked out for the
vessel. Upon arrival at Niulakita, a boat from H.M.F.S. Viti
made an attempt to land. Mr. Gallagher and myself were both members
of the landing party, and when it was obvious that no landing was possible
through the tremendous surf prevailing, Mr. Gallagher prepared to swim
through the breakers in order to ascertain the extent to which repairs
were required to the existing buildings on the island. He was only dissuaded
from this purpose with the greatest difficulty.
At every stage
of the voyage Mr. Gallagher worked unceasingly – often far into the
night – and on occasions, when cargo was being loaded, all night ....
When ... unavoidable delays occurred Mr. Gallagher gradually became
obsessed with the necessity for speeding up the vessel's schedule, and
finally the saving of even a few hours time became with him a primary
objective.
Despite all attempts
to induce him to remain ashore (on Tarawa) until convalescence was more
advanced, he returned to his duties at the earliest possible moment.
He was given a tonic mixture and made some progress, although his appearance
was gaunt and it was obvious that he was suffering from nervous exhaustion.
The completion
of the tour and his final settlement at Gardner Island now became a
complete obsession with him. He spoke of this constantly, and apparently
he looked forward to a quiet period which would enable him to read the
large quantity of mail which had accumulated for him at Ocean Island,
and to take up the threads of his work in the Phoenix Is.
On arrival at
Gardner Island the weather conditions were far from favourable, and
he naturally worried a great deal about the landing of the stores and
other material for which he had waited so long. The unavoidable loss
of some of these stores, particularly reinforcing iron and timber, was
consequently a severe disappointment. He worked incessantly during this
time, sparing only an hour in which to conduct me round the Station
in order that we might choose finally the site of the proposed hospital.
After travelling
on through the Phoenix Islands, during which time Gallagher's condition
worsened, and arriving at Canton Island...
He ... assured
me that he felt he would only recover in his own house on Gardner Island
and amidst his own native people.
After leaving
Canton Island, your telegram (unnumbered) of 30th [?] September
was decoded by Mr. Hogan, and its contents were communicated to Mr.
Gallagher [Note:the "3" in "30" has been struck through and replaced
with another number, but it is not clear on our photocopy what the number
is. Given the chronology of events, this was almost certainly the telegram
of 20th September in which Sir Harry asked Gallagher to go to Ocean Island
as Secretary to Government]. Its effect on him in his then
agitated mental and weak physical state was profound. He told me that
he felt that he was "at the end of his tether," and that he proposed
to go ashore at Gardner Island and remain there until he was well.
At Nikumaroro
...
He was carried
on a mattress to his own house, which is at a considerable distance
from the landing place. He was more cheerful that evening and passed
a more tranquil night than any since the commencement of his illness.
Physical signs were still absent. He proved an extremely difficult patient
to manage, insisting on trying all kinds of foods for which he had a
passing fancy, and refusing to be washed or otherwise nursed in any
way.
There follows a
detailed account of Gallagher’s precipitous decline, Macpherson’s operation,
the shocking condition of Gallagher’s intestinal walls (“no thicker than
tissue paper, and highly suggestive of the disease, resulting from malnutrition,
and known as sprue”), and Macpherson’s valiant but unsuccessful efforts
to stabilize his condition. Finally:
I informed the
Native Magistrate and others that the end was near. They assembled round
his bed, and those who profess Roman Catholicism, led by Mr. Hogan,
sat by his bed and offered him the spiritual consolation which the rites
of the Roman Catholic Church provide for the dying. His passing at 12.7
a.m. on the 27th September was completely peaceful.
At dawn, with
the assistance of Mr. Whysall, I pegged out an area at the base of the
flagstaff in an east and west direction and a grave was prepared, and
lined with coconut fronds .... The coffin was draped with a new Union
Jack and was carried on the shoulders of representative numbers of Europeans,
Fijians, Ellice Islanders and Gilbertese. At the gravesite Lieut-Commander
Mullins read the burial service of the Roman Catholic Church and the
hymn Nearer My God to Thee was sung by the Europeans present.
Lieut-Commander Mullins spoke a few simple and appropriate words (a
copy of which have already been given to His Excellency). The Protestant
natives sang a hymn in Ellice, and subsequently Maheo, an Ellice Islander,
and one of the native wireless operators, paid a simple, eloquent, and
most touching tribute (in English) to Mr. Gallagher's memory. After
the grave had been filled in, the native women on the station placed
garlands of bush flowers around it.
The whole setting
of this sad scene was impressive, and to any onlooker would have presented
a striking picture. A dense mass of green bush in the Back.kground, the
glistening white sand of the Government Station with its careful planning
and its wide avenues fringed with young coconut palms, the bright cloudless
sky, the infinite variety and graduations of colour in the lagoon in
the foreground, the myriads of seabirds whirling overhead, the group
of Europeans wearing Service uniform and natives clad in spotless Sunday
garb – all assembled and bareheaded beneath the flagstaff where the
flag was flying at half-mast.
I had decided
long prior to Mr. Gallagher's illness ... to write semi-officially to
His Excellency the High Commissioner and express my personal admiration
of the excellent work which this young officer had accomplished ....
The vision and judgement which he showed in the laying out of the new
settlement will be apparent to all who may have occasion to visit the
Phoenix Islands in future, and will remain, I trust, as an enduring
monument to a faithful and able officer, and a very gallant gentleman.
Before he left Nikumaroro,
Macpherson was given a letter by Gallagher’s servant, Aram Tamia, with
the request that it be posted to Gerald's mother:
I have lost the
most wonderful, kind, good and thoughtful master that any servant ever
had ....
Mister Gallagher
is laid to rest at the foot of the flag-mast, and the flag he taught
us to love and respect waves over him every day.
We, the people
who dearly love him, are going to tend his resting place. It is also
for that reason, and a custom of my people, that I am remaining here
for some time with my master.
Please will you,
his mother, accept from me, his sorrowing servant, my deepest sympathy
in your sad loss of such a good son and man.
Your obedient
servant,
Aram Tamia55
Karaka
Village and the Uen Maungan I Karaka
A little over a
month after Gallagher’s death, the World War came to the Pacific, and
Kiribati was invaded. The Japanese did not attack the Phoenix Islands,
however, and allied air bases were established on Kanton. Although some
residents of Orona, Manra and Nikumaroro went to Kanton to work, and although
a U.S. Coast Guard Loran station operated on Nikumaroro from 1944 until
1946, the colonists were essentially isolated from the world, visited
only occasionally by colonial officers from Kanton. Left to themselves,
they subsisted on traditional foods and what they could glean through
occasional wage labor on Kanton and by selling handcrafts to the Americans.
Gallagher had only
begun to demark and allocate land to colonial families, so the bulk of
the land and its seedling coconut trees were still regarded as comprising
a government plantation. Without central direction, and with the market
for copra uncertain at best, the islanders seem to have devoted rather
little time to the trees, and the plantation fell into disrepair.
Not so the Government
Station and the abutting village, however. Renamed Karaka after Gallagher,
the village and Gallagher’s grave were very well maintained. Gallagher’s
erstwhile servant, Aram Tamia, evolved into the island magistrate, and
kept his promise to Gallagher’s mother. In 1944 a visiting colonial officer
reported that “the village area was clean and doing well,” though “elsewhere
secondary bush was encroaching.”56
After the War, a
new official of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, Paul Laxton, spent
time on the island, and wrote an important account of it. It appears that
while the colonial village – now named “Karaka” in Gallagher’s memory
– had survived the War, and been lovingly maintained by its residents,
it had stagnated economically. In other words, it was not producing copra.
Part of the problem was that by the time of his death, Gallagher had not
yet finished dividing up the land and assigning parcels to permanent colonists.
The colonists, one reads between the lines of Laxton's article, didn’t
see themselves as landowners but as government employees, responsible
for maintaining the village’s assets while eking out a subsistence living,
but with little investment in the coconut plantations. Laxton's mission
was to change all that.
[I] flatly presented
this hard, realistic, Gideon-like policy. The weaker members should
pack up and go: if they proved to be a great proportion of the island
community then the whole settlement would be given up and a copra plantation
formed. Otherwise, new blood would come in on a system of leaseholds,
receiving a block of planted land in return for which they should clear
and plant specified areas for government. After three years the future
of the pioneer settlement would be reviewed. This brusque challenge
is what Nikumaroro needed....57
The colonists responded
positively to Laxton’s pitch, and in short order the coconut land of the
island was divided into plots and assigned to families. More colonists
came in from Manra, and the village itself was relocated. One gets the
impression that Laxton was intent on getting the residents away from the
Government Center that Gallagher had overseen, with his grave and all
the other reminders of the time before the War, and focus their attention
on cultivating coconuts. Apparently this worked; the Gallagher-era village
was effectively abandoned, and the colony’s center of gravity shifted
south along the southwest side of the island.
But Gallagher was
not forgotten. Laxton reported that:
Recently the islanders
built and dedicated their permanent maneaba, that combination of assembly
hall and shrine of tradition which is the centre of Gilbertese community,
and named it "Uen Maungan I Karaka," an idiomatic phrase which may be
equally translated "Flower to the Memory of Gallagher" and "The Flowering
of Gallagher's Achievement." Thus they commemorate the English gentleman
whose devotion and leadership made their new home possible.58
In 1989, surveying
along the lagoon shore of the village, we found the remains of what must
have been Uen Maungan I Karaka. The maneaba, eighteen meters long and
ten meters wide, sat on a low coral rubble platform lined with coral slabs.
The structure itself had completely collapsed, but for two standing posts.
It had apparently had a peaked roof that collapsed to the northwest, and
a number of curving roof members. The most interesting feature of the
maneaba, besides its size and unique curved roof members, was the fact
that it was painted. The standing posts were painted in alternating bands
of red, blue, and white, and at least some of the roof members were blue
with white stars and spots. The “Flower to the Memory of Gallagher,” in
other words, was painted in the colors of the Union Jack.
In the end, Laxton’s
“Gideon-like” policy failed to bring about the economic renaissance he
hoped for, particularly in the face of a series of drought years that
followed its imposition. Based on the testimony of his consultants, former
residents of Manra, Knudson describes the decline of the colony there,
whose fate would be shared by those on Orona and Nikumaroro a few years
later.
It appears that
this lengthy [drought] crisis prompted the [council of elders]
of Sydney Island to request the government to move them elsewhere. The
request was not a unanimous one. There was considerable discussion of
the matter, with some of the elders agreeing and some disagreeing. The
young men appear not to have been in favor of moving. Those I talked
to in the Solomons said they enjoyed the dry climate and felt that there
was always sufficient food.
As the drought
continued the elders gradually came to agree among themselves that the
island was not permanently habitable. Finally in the early 1950s they
sent a deputation to Tarawa. Convinced that Sydney Island had been the
hardest hit by the droughts, and that there was little chance that conditions
there could be much improved, the officers of the central administration
determined to move the islanders elsewhere.59
By the early 1960s
Nikumaroro, Orona, and Manra were all abandoned. It is almost as if the
colony failed for want of nerve, and one has to wonder how much the loss
of its pioneer leader and advocate had to do with this. Residents of Nikumaroro
Village in the Solomon Islands, whence many of the colonists from its
namesake island were moved, still evince puzzlement over why they had
to leave, and the Kiribati government periodically studies reviving the
PISS. Nevertheless the die was cast and in 1963 the last Nikumaroro settlers
steamed away, leaving the island to the birds and coconut crabs that populate
it today.
They left what seems
to have been a fairly healthy coconut plantation, now a dense, feral jungle,
and the rapidly decaying ruins of their homes, their maneaba, and the
Government Station. And at the centre of the latter, the last monument
to the colony’s hero.
In
the middle of the parade ground is Gallagher’s grave, lovingly constructed
by the natives to MacPherson’s design.60
Designed by Dr.
Macpherson, Gallagher’s grave monument resembles that of Robert Louis
Stevenson in Samoa.61A house-shaped structure of concrete, probably over
a coral core, it sits on a low rectangular platform lined with small slabs.
The files of the
Western Pacific High Commission indicate that shortly after its construction
a bronze plaque was affixed to its end, paid for with subscriptions collected
by Harry Maude, that read:
In
affectionate Memory
Of
GERALD BERNARD GALLAGHER, M.A.
Of the Colonial Administrative Service.
Officer in charge of the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme
Who died on Gardner Island, where he would have wished to die, on the
27th September, 1941, aged 29 years
.....
His selfless devotion to duty and unsparing work on behalf of
The natives of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands
Were an inspiration to all who knew him, and to his labours is largely
Due the successful colonization of the
PHOENIX ISLANDS.
R.I.P
:::::::::::::
Erected by his friends and brother officers.
This plaque has
disappeared*, but TIGHAR replaced it with a similar plaque in 2001. At
the east (head) end of the grave, in traditional I Kiribati fashion, the
colonists planted a young coconut tree. By 1989 when we first saw the
grave the tree was quite large, and a coconut crab (Birgus latro)
had made its home at its foot, burrowing under the grave structure. The
crab was caught and eaten by our Fijian ship’s crew.
* We have subsequently learned that on the abandonment of the village, Gallagher’s remains and the bronze plaque were retrieved at his mother’s request, and he was re-interred on Tarawa, where he still rests.
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