Gerald Gallagher

Gerald B. Gallagher was a British colonial officer of Irish extraction who was assigned to the Crown Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, arriving in 1937. He subsequently became Administrator of the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme, and was responsible (with Magistrate Koata and other colonists) for the 1940 discovery of human bones on Nikumaroro that may have been Earhart's. See "Gallagher of Nikumaroro: The Last Expansion of the British Empire" by TIGHAR's lead archeologist, Tom King.

From Marty Moleski's Notes

• GBG had a pet gannet, "a bird of character called Honk."
• Neither Mrs. Brown nor Stan remember Gallagher having a fiance, but it wouldn't surprise her if he did. "Many of those young men came out in the service, went home on leave and returned with a bride. The wives usually disliked the area."
• Rumor--GG's fiance was secretary to Jack Charles Barley, resident commissioner, GEIC. b. 1887. BA (Oxon.). We weren't able to make any progress with this rumor.
• Where is Gallagher's diary from Niku? Where are his photographs?
• Where is the correspondence about moving his body from Niku to Tarawa? The letter was not in his WPHC file. Did they open a new file on him in Tarawa?

Missing trunks

• There was a fire six years ago that destroyed Carpenters' office building. But Carpenters is owned by an Australian company (Carpenters Holdings). Walter Carpenter, the old man, loved to keep records and he may have had them moved to an Australian university. His son, Randolph, is in Australia.
• Tofiga's daughter worked at Carpenter's in 2003. She denied that there would be any records that we could get our hands on.
• The London office closed about 10 years ago.
• VWTMcG wrote Dr. Duncan "Jock" Macpherson's dad to say that his son had cirrhosis of the liver. Three days later, Jock died at age 42 on July 10, 1943. On 4 October 1943, a silver pocket watch, a silver wrist watch, and a gold signet ring were sent to the Secretary of the WPHC: "It was Dr. Macpherson's intent to take these items to Mr. Gallagher's parents when he next went to England on leave."
  • Were these items included in the trunk inventory? Shipped separately? Lost?
• Terence Hugh Gallagher: sole executor of GBG's will.

Settlement of the Estate

1229259 F.49/26: Gallagher, G.B. (deceased): - claims against the estate of. 1942-1945.
1229259 WPHC 9/II F.49/26 Gallagher, G.B. (deceased): -
Claims against the estate of.

Last paper 3597/1936 (S. of S.). See also main files.

Last entry: 2nd October 1945, GS Barrack pays the Hercules Cotton Company in Sydney, Australia. It took him 5 years and many letters to collect his 29-2-10.

The estate got charged for GBG's mess bill from his last trip on the Viti in 1941.

Harry Evans Maude was the administrator of the estate (30 May 1945) according to D.C. McKee.

24 September 1944 "Constable Esele makes a claim for the Gilbertese canoe on the grounds that five months before his death Mr. Gallagher said to him these words, "When I leave the Colony you shall have this canoe" of course this is no legal claim, but meanwhile the canoe referred to is in the boat shed on Gardner Island awaiting disposal. The Ellice type canoe was given to Aram in trust for his son BENATI who was a kind of God-son of the deceased."

Last minute: C.A.? ARPPKC. AS(G) 8.4.48

Two lines below, initials or abbreviation that I can't decipher.