Jim Ridges is a retired PNG public servant.  He was my first connection with my first memorial. He rang me at home from Kavieng some time in 2000.  When my husband said that I had a call from Kavieng, I was somewhat startled.  I was writing a book about my father and my mind was very much in PNG but I did not think that others would know of my work.

Jim asked for permission to use Tom and Nellie’s letters (my parents) that were microfilmed and in the library of the Australian National University in Canberra.

He explained that after his retirement in 1977, he had settled in Kavieng and was researching the history of New Ireland.   He thought that the letter might have some ‘historical content’.   We talked about the history of the area and I told him about my book.  From the conversation, the seed was sown for the memorial in New Ireland.

I reassured him that he was he was not on his own in his research.  I told him about Margaret Reeson’s two books Whereabouts Unknown and A Very Long War for which many of us had been interviewed.   Jim realised that there was a network of people researching their family connections with PNG.

We agreed that there was a need for a memorial for the civilian population of New Ireland including the indigenous people and the Chinese community who had lost their lives in World War II.  We thought that Kavieng would be an ideal location.  The site that was eventually chosen was ideal.  It was in a garden where there was already a World War I memorial.

Jim worked tirelessly researching the names of people whose names should be on the memorial plaque.  Erice Pizer (whose father was a planter in New Ireland) took on the task of organizing the manufacture of the bronze plaque and getting it to Kavieng.   I spread the word of the proposed ceremony to unveil the plaque.  The ‘bush telegraph’ was very effective.Kavieng Memorial

One of our number heard of it while talking to a stranger on a bus!  She was very pleased to go and perhaps learn more about her father who did not survive the war.   Another was writing a book entitled New Guinea Engineer, the story of Les Bell, formerly of Kavieng.   She rang me to find out more about my Erroll Flynn connection.  (My New Hanover nurse maid was a daughter of the infamous Australian!)

Her father had also been lost on New Ireland and she was delighted to come from New Zealand to the Memorial service.  Eventually, about 40 people from Australia and New Zealand made the trip to Kavieng.

In his introduction to the booklet prepared for the service Jim Ridges wrote;

Living in Kavieng since 1997, I can remember thinking it strange that there was no memorial to those from New Ireland who lost their lives in World War II especially the Catholic Mission that lost ten priests, a brother and two sisters.

A couple of years ago Margaret Henderson and I made contact.   She was writing a book about her father the Reverend Thomas Simpson of Ranmelek Mission.   From then on the word spread until on 4th July 2002 a bronze plaque remembering 97 named civilians who lost their lives and innumerable others from New Ireland was unveiled at the Kavieng War Memorial Garden.

…..there are no records of indigenous deaths and if there had been there would have been a need for a very large memorial.  Chinese and mixed race deaths were also not recorded, and it is certain that there are names missing from the plaque.

In his description of the people behind the names on the plaque Jim wrote about my father:

SIMPSON,  Reverend Thomas Nevison.  ‘Tom’ of Ranmelek Methodist Mission drowned 1st July 1942 aged 33.   A Barwell Boy, orphan emigrant from England to South Australia in 1942 to become a farm apprentice.  He came to New Ireland in 1936 and personally built the first mission centre on New Hanover which at the time had a quarantine against local people leaving because of leprosy.  He ministered to the Anelaua Island leprosy colony patients who were Methodists.  As with some others there are differing stories of his death.  Husband of Nellie and father of Margaret and John.

Early on a beautiful tropical morning we walked from the Malagan Lodge in the morning mist to the small War Memorial Garden with its existing memorial and a flag pole.   The park had a beautiful view across the sea to neighbouring islands.  Boats bobbed on the blue sea and exotic colourful birds flew noisily overhead.  People were already there and I clearly recall the perfume of the tropical flowers.     Some had been made into wreaths while other were bunches of mixed blooms.   The ABC TV cameras and other photographers were positioning themselves to get the best angles before and after the sun rose.   Microphones were being tested and Jim Ridges was organising his recorded music.   The Catholic Women’s Choir and the Uniting Church Choir in heavy looking purple robes were standing quietly waiting for the service to begin.   The Chinese community in their colourful brilliant costumes walked together down the street to take their place near the veiled memorial.   The rising sun behind them created a vision that I will never forget.

The service began right on 7 am.  There was a strong sense of quiet and reverence.   This was the occasion that we had been waiting for all our lives.  It was the funeral service for our fathers, our brothers, and friends.

We sat in chairs facing the plaque but we were surrounded by hundreds of standing people who had come to participate.  The service was splendid.  The solemnity of the event was lightened by the beautiful singing of the two choirs.

The most solemn part of the service was when Jim read out the 97 names of the people on the plaque and members of the congregation came forward and reverently placed floral tributes by the plaque.   As I heard the names, memories came flooding back.

Oakes, Ashby, Bell, Doyle, Edwards, Heming, Lightbody, Parkinson, Saunders, Wilkins, Goad and so many more.   Some of the names were familiar from meetings of ‘New Guinea Women’ in South Australia that I attended during the war years as a very young child with my mother.  This was a support group for wives and children waiting hopefully for news of their husbands who had been left behind in PNG.

Others were familiar as a result of reading my father’s letters.  Some were the result of new friends that I had met as a result of the plaque.   My husband laid a floral tribute to Murray Edwards who had been my father’s friend so many years before.   Equally touching was the number of indigenous people who placed floral tributes to people that they did not know but who they recognised had given so much to their country many years before.   Soon the plaque was hidden by flowers.

The Australian High Commissioner (Nick Warner) gave an appropriately ‘official’ but none-the-less moving speech.

When the time came for anybody to say a few words I did not hesitate, but it was probably more than a ‘few words’.  I felt that this was the time to tell the world about my father – so I did!  The 4th July was American Independence day and we were delighted to announce the birth of a grandson in California named Luke Thomas – Thomas after my father.  My husband was with me to make this announcement and to read a message from Patricia Gaffney Ansell the President of the American War Orphans Association of America.

When it was over, we all walked quietly back to where we were staying.  It was a very emotional morning and I was exhausted but at the same time exhilarated by the beautiful service in honour of my father and his friends.

An ABC television crew had accompanied us from Port Moresby and they asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed.  I agreed but wanted some time to recharge my batteries.   Later in the afternoon the interview took place.  It began at the Malagan Lodge where we were staying and then it moved to a nearby beach where I had been told that my father had been beheaded.   This was all a new experience for me but the TV crew were wonderful.  They were respectful and very considerate and it soon felt like a chat with friends.  The reporter was a very young Sean McLeod.   On the beach where I believe that my father died, I was filmed sitting on a rock looking out to sea while a ‘voice over’ explained the significance of the place.   The segment that eventually appeared on the 7. 30 Report is a vivid record of that memorable and remarkable day.


With thanks to Margaret Henderson who has given permission for this account to be taken from her book Yours sincerely, Tom:  Revisited.