Donald Gilbert Kennedy(March 1898 – 1976) was a teacher, then an administrator in the British colonial service in theGilbert and Ellice IslandsColony and the BritishSolomon IslandsProtectorate. For his services as aCoastwatcherduring thePacific War(World War II), he was awarded theDSO,[1][2][3]and theNavy Cross(U.S.).[4][Note 1]He published journal articles and books on the material culture ofVaitupuatoll, land tenure, and the language of theEllice Islands.[2][3]
Donald Gilbert Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 1898 |
| Died | 1976 Bayly’s Beach, New Zealand |
| Occupation(s) | teacher, colonial administrator |
Childhood and education
editKennedy, the son of Robert and Isabelle Kennedy (née Chisholm), was born atSpringhillsnearInvercargill.The family moved toOamaruin 1904 and Kennedy attended local public schools: Tokarahi primary school (1904–1910) andWaitaki Boys' High School(1911–1915).[2] He attended Kaikorai School inDunedinwhere he gained a Teacher’s Certificate. He also completed the first part of an arts degree in French, Latin and History atOtago University,although he did not complete the degree. He served in the territorial army and in March 1918 he enlisted in the New Zealand army. WhenWorld War Iended in November 1918, he was a second lieutenant with his unit in training.[2] He was a teacher at the Native College atŌtaki(1919) and Dannevirke High School (1920). In December 1920, he married Nellie Chapman; they divorced in 1944.
Service in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony
editIn 1921, he became assistant master at the Suva Boys’ Grammar School inFiji.He accepted a position with the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) which administered theBritish Western Pacific Territories(BWPT) and was appointed the headmaster to the Banaban School onOcean Islandin the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. In 1923, he went to theEllice Islandsto found and direct a new school called Elisefou (New Ellice) onFunafuti,which he moved toVaituputhe next year as the food supply was better on that atoll.[2]He was the headmaster for 8 years and was a disciplinarian who would not hesitate to beat his students.[5][6]The two most famousTuvaluansfrom the school were Tuvalu's firstGovernor General,SirFiatau Penitala Teoand its first Prime Minister,Toaripi Lauti.In 1925–26 he built himself a radio transmitter, which he used to send messages to New Zealand. He also taught students how to build and operate radio transmitters.[2]
In 1926, he was instrumental in establishing the first co-operative store (fusi) on Vaitupu, which became a model for the bulk purchasing and selling cooperative stores established in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony to replace the stores operated byPalangitraders.[2]
In 1929, Kennedy donated a large quantity of Tuvaluan artefacts to theOtago Museum.He publishedField Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islandsin the Journal of the Polynesian Society in instalments between 1929 and 1932 and as a book in 1931.[2]
In April 1932 Kennedy became the resident District Officer atFunafutiin the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.[5][6]He also served as the Native Lands Commissioner from 1934 to 1938.[2][7]In 1938 he was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship to study for a year atUniversity College, Oxfordfor a Diploma in Anthropology. Kennedy’s plans to return to Funafuti was ended by a deputation of islanders to the WPHC Commissioner,Sir Harry Luke,who provided a list of grievances about Kennedy’s drunkenness, cruelty and “always [being] after the native women and girls.” However, this deputation does not appear to represent the commonly held opinion of the Ellice Islanders, as a second deputation asked for Kennedy to return to the islands to complete his work as Land Commissioner and because the Islanders were grateful for Kennedy's work including in educating the Islanders at Elisefou school. An investigation of the complains after World War II concluded that the allegations were ‘vague in the extreme’ and that, without a proper enquiry, including giving Kennedy the opportunity to respond to the allegations, no judgment could be formed about his culpability.[3]In August 1939, the WPHC appointed Kennedy to an administrative position onOcean Island.[2]
Service in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in World War II
edit
In 1940 he transferred to theBritish Solomon IslandsProtectorate (BSIP) to work at the protectorate headquarters onTulagi.He was allocated the administration of the district of Gela in the Nggela Islands.[2]Following the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, he was commissioned as a captain in theBSIP Defence Force.He continued in his administrative duties, with his responsibilities covering the north-western half of the Solomon Islands and includedYsabel,Nggelaand theShortland Islands.[2]
He organised an intelligence-gathering network of local informants and messengers to carry out the role ofCoastwatchers;who were planters, government officials, missionaries and islanders who went into hiding after the Japanese invasion of the Solomon Islands in 1942. The Coastwatchers monitored Japanese shipping and aircraft (reporting by radio) and also rescued Allied personnel who were stranded in the territory held by the Japanese.[2][8][9]
On 20 April 1942, Kennedy established a base at Mahanga (Mahaga), which overlookedThousand Ships Bayon the south coast ofSanta Isabel Island.Following further Japanese advances, in July 1942 he transferred his headquarters to Seghe (Segi or Sergi) on the south coast ofNew Georgia,which was on the channel between New Georgia andVangunuin theWestern Province.On 7 August 1942, U.S. forces captured Tulagi and an airfield onGuadalcanal.As Seghe was under the flight path of the Japanese aircraft flying fromRabaul,Kennedy was able to provide warnings by radio to the U.S. forces of attacking aircraft. Kennedy reported on Japanese shipping in theNew Georgia Sound(known as ‘The Slot’), which were attempting to reinforce the troops on Guadalcanal, and also rescued downed American airmen.[3][2]
Kennedy lead a force of about 30 Solomon Islander fighters, with about 60 carriers of equipment.[10]Kennedy gained a reputation for physical abuse of his subordinates and islanders that he viewed as defying his authority.[3][11]
By March 1943 the U.S. command were planning theNew Georgia Campaign,which included an assault on the Japanese airfield atMunda,in the north-west of New Georgia and also landing atSeghe to build an airfield.Kennedy directed engagements when Japanese patrols were in the vicinity of Seghe. During the night of 19 May 1943 Kennedy and his crew on the 10-tonschoonerDadavataengaged a Japanese patrol in a 25-foot long JapaneseWhaleboaton theMarovo Lagoon.[12]During the firefight, Kennedy received a wound to his right thigh. At the time the wound was attributed to a bullet fired by the Japanese, however following a confession in 1987, it appears that the bullet was fired by Kennedy’s own lieutenant, Bill Bennett, who had recently been flogged by Kennedy.[2][3]Two companies of the4th Marine Raider Battalionlanded at Seghe on the morning of 21 June to defend it against an attack launched by a Japanese battalion.[13]He ended his war service with the rank ofmajor.[3]
1944–46 Resettlement of Banabans on Rabi Island, Fiji
editIn February 1944, he was appointed as acting district commissioner, based in the new capital of the BSIP inHoniaraonGuadalcanal.In July 1944 he returned to New Zealand and divorced Nellie then married Mary Campbell. In December 1944, after receiving hospital treatment for alcoholism, he was appointed by the WPHC to an administration position in Fiji.[2][3]
In August 1945, he was appointed as the ‘Banaban adviser’ to draw up a constitution for the ‘council and the management of a cooperative society’ for the Banaban people ofOcean Island,whom the colonial administration were resettling onRabi Islandin Fiji. TheBanabanshad been deported by the Japanese toNauru,TarawaandKosrae.They were unwilling migrants to Fiji, and they were angry because theBritish Phosphate Commissionhad made Ocean Island uninhabitable. Kennedy was forced to call on the police when the Banabans began protesting. Kennedy was subsequently replaced as the Banaban adviser in May 1946.[2][3]
Activities 1947 to 1950
editFollowing vacation leave he retired as ‘District Officer, BSIP’ on 25 April 1947. He and Mary went to live on ‘Glen Aros’ station inHawke’s Bay,New Zealand, which Mary had inherited from her parents. He continued to suffer from alcoholism.[2][3]
He was employed byASIOfor 7 months in 1950. He spent three months of that time inLaeinPapua New Guinea(PNG) before resigning. Kennedy was involved in the establishment of a branch of the Australian Security Service in PNG, which appears to be motivated by a fear of Communist infiltration.[3]
1951–52 Resettlement of Vaitupuans on Kioa Island, Fiji
editIn 1945, Kennedy visitedVaitupu,where overpopulation was an issue, and some of the islanders were receptive to resettlement.[14]Kennedy encouragedNeli Lifukain the resettlement proposal that eventually resulted in the purchase ofKioaisland inFiji.[5][6][7]
In June 1946, Kennedy andHenry Evans Maude,bought the island ofKioain Fiji on behalf of the Vaitupuans who wanted to migrate. Between 1947 and 1963, 217 people moved to Kioa.[15]Kennedy was invited to Kioa to act as an advisor to the community. He arrived on Kioa in September 1951 and initiated an ambitious development program involving clearing bush, planting coconuts and grazing cattle in order to create an enterprise that could attract further Ellice Islanders to live on Kioa. This program was not accepted by the settlers and the following year they expelled him from the island.[2][3]
Retirement 1952 to 1976
editHe purchased the small island of Waya, in theKadavu Group,Fiji in 1952. He and Mary were divorced in the same year.[2][3]
In 1958 Emeline, an Ellice Islander, became hiscommon-law wife.In 1973 Kennedy’s health declined; as a consequence he sold the island, after marrying, he and Emeline retired to New Zealand. He died in 1976, aged 77 yrs.[2][3]
Publications
edit- Kennedy, Donald Gilbert, Field notes on the culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands’ (1931): Thomas Avery & Sons, New Plymouth, N.Z.
- Kennedy, Donald Gilbert, ‘Te ngangana a te Tuvalu – Handbook on the language of the Ellice Islands’ (1946) Websdale, Shoosmith, Sydney N.S.W.
- Kennedy, Donald Gilbert (1953)."Land tenure in the Ellice Islands by Donald Gilbert Kennedy".Journal of the Polynesian Society.62:348–358.
- Kennedy, Donald Gilbert (1931).The Ellice Islands Canoe Journal of the Polynesian Society Memoir no. 9.Journal of the Polynesian Society. pp. 71–100. Archived fromthe originalon 6 October 2022.Retrieved9 April2019.
Sources
edit- Butcher, Mike (2012).... when the long trick's over': Donald Kennedy in the Pacific.Kennington, Vic., Australia: Holland House.ISBN9780987162700.
- Feldt, Eric Augustus(1991) [1946].The Coastwatchers.Victoria, Australia: Penguin Books.ISBN0-14-014926-0.
- Lord, Walter(2006) [1977].Lonely Vigil; Coastwatchers of the Solomons.New York: Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-59114-466-3.
Notes
edit- Footnotes
- ^Synopsis: The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Donald G. Kennedy, Captain, New Zealand, for extraordinary heroism in action against Japanese forces as a Coast Watcher at Sergi Point, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands. Captain Kennedy he led his men in numerous skirmishes and destroyed or captured many Japanese troops, machine-guns, and barges, with negligible injury to his force. He also rescued many downed American airmen.[4]
- Citations
- ^"Major Kennedy Decorated".XIV(5) Pacific Islands Monthly.17 December 1943.Retrieved28 September2021.
- ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuLaracy, Hugh (2013)."Chapter 11 - Donald Gilbert Kennedy (1897-1967) An outsider in the Colonial Service"(PDF).Watriama and Co: Further Pacific Islands Portraits.Australian National University Press.ISBN9781921666322.
- ^abcdefghijklmnButcher, Mike (2012).... when the long trick's over: Donald Kennedy in the Pacific.Holland House, Kennington, Vic.ISBN978-0-9871627-0-0.
- ^ab"Full Text Citations For Award of The Navy Cross".To Foreign Personnel - World War II.Archived fromthe originalon 2 July 2017.Retrieved25 July2017.
- ^abcLifuka, Neli (1978).Logs in the current of the sea: Neli Lifuka's story of Kioa and the Vaitupu colonists.Australian National University Press/Press of the Langdon Associates.ISBN0708103626.
- ^abcGoldsmith, Michael (2008)."Chapter 8, Telling Lives in Tuvalu".Telling Pacific Lives: Prisms of Process.London: ANU E Press.
- ^abNoatia P. Teo (1983). "Chapter 17, Colonial Rule". In Laracy, Hugh (ed.).Tuvalu: A History.University of the South Pacific/Government of Tuvalu. p. 37.
- ^"Coastwatchers".Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893–1978.Retrieved21 July2017.
- ^"Coastwatcher Donald Kennedy".Axis History Forum.2008.Retrieved8 June2015.
- ^"Kennedy's Boys Go A-Feudin'".XV(12) Pacific Islands Monthly.17 July 1945.Retrieved29 September2021.
- ^Laracy, Hugh (1991)."George Bogese:" Just a bloody traitor "?"(PDF).Remembering the Pacific War.University of Hawai'i Center for Pacific Island Studies.
- ^"Battle of Marova Lagoon".XIV(8) Pacific Islands Monthly.20 March 1944.Retrieved28 September2021.
- ^Morison, Samuel Eliot(1958).Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier,vol. 6 ofHistory of United States Naval Operations in World War II.Castle Books.ISBN0-7858-1307-1.
- ^Lifuka, Neli (1978)."War Years In Funafuti"(PDF).In Koch, Klaus-Friedrich (ed.).Logs in the current of the sea: Neli Lifuka's story of Kioa and the Vaitupu colonists.Australian National University Press/Press of the Langdon Associates.ISBN0708103626.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 7 August 2020.Retrieved18 November2018.
- ^G. M. White (1965).Kioa: an Ellice community in Fiji.Project for the Comparative Study of Cultural Change and Stability in Displaced Communities in the Pacific, 1962–63: Oregon University, Department of Anthropology.