Born in Wellington, New Zealand, 23 October 1921, Sir Colin took a BA (1943) and MA (1945) at Canterbury University and a Diploma in Anthropology at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He served with the NZ army (1942-44) and with the British Solomon Islands Defence Force (1945).
Sir Colin was appointed in 1945 as an Administrative Cadet in the British Colonial Service and spent a brief training period in the Western District of Fiji. Transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, he served first as District Officer Nggela, Western Solomons, then D.O. and District Commissioner Western (1946-1948), D.O. Choiseul and Ysabel (1948), D.O. Malu`u (1949) and finally District Commissioner Malaita (1950-1952) at the time of the Marching Rule. He was appointed by the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific to be Special Lands Commissioner on 10 July 1953.
In 1954 Sir Colin was seconded to the Western Pacific High Commission Secretariat as Senior Assistant Secretary, Finance and Development. Here Sir Colin completed the report of the Solomon Islands Special Lands Commission on 17 June 1957. He served as Secretary of the BSIP Agriculture and Industrial Affairs Board (1956-57), Chaired the BSIP Copra Marketing Board (1957-58) and represented the UK on the South Pacific Commission Research Council (1958).
In 1959 Sir Colin transferred to Port Vila where he was appointed Assistant British Resident Commissioner of the New Hebrides Condominium (1959-66) and then Resident Commissioner (1966-73). Sir Colin was appointed Governor and Commander in Chief of the Seychelles (1973-76) and then Governor of the Solomon Islands (1976-1978) at the time of their independence. He was the last High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. Sir Colin was knighted in 1977 and retired from his illustrious career in 1978.
Sir Colin had a close association with Professor Jim Davidson and other members of the faculty in Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the National Centre for Development Studies, having been a Visiting Fellow in the Australian National University for a time. His publications include Customary Land Tenure in the Solomon Islands, 1958, based on the report of the Special Lands Commission, Constitution Making in New Island States, 1982, and Solomons Safari, 1989.

Reel 1: PMB 1189/1-21 Sir Colin manuscripts and articles (with reviews), 1951-88; PMB 1189/22-23 Sir Colin’s speeches, 1967-84; PMB 1189/24 Sir Colin’s press articles about Marching Rule, 1945-51; PMB 1189/25 Sir Colin’s letters to editors re colonial administration, 1981-82; PMB 1189/100-107 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980.
Reel 2: PMB 1189/108-125 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.
Reel 3: PMB 1189/126-142 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.
Reel 4: PMB 1189/143-159 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.; PMB 1189/160-167 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993.
Reel 5: PMB 1189/168-183 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.
Reel 6: PMB 1189/184-196 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.
Reel 7: PMB 1189/197-216 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.; PMB 1189/217-218 Papers re general Pacific matters, 1944-1983.
Reel 8: PMB 1189/219-229 Papers re general Pacific matters, 1944-1983, cont.; PMB 1189/267-271 Papers on constitutional development in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, including resettlement of Gilbertese in the Solomons, 1943-1987.
Reel 9: PMB 1189/272-273 Papers on constitutional development, cont.; PMB 1189/276-280, 285-291 Selected press cuttings, 1953-1989; PMB 1189/294 Selected printed material – Solomon Islands.
Reel 10: PMB 1189/295, 298, 301-303, 306-312 Selected printed material – Solomon Islands, cont.; PMB 1189/384-385, 388 Selected printed material – Vanuatu.
Reel 11: PMB 1189/394-397, 400 Selected printed material – Vanuatu, cont.
<B>See Finding aids for details.</B>

The Rev. Peter Milne (1834-1924) was born in Scotland and went to the New Hebrides as a Presbyterian Missionary in 1869. After a brief stay on Erromanga, he established himself at Nguna on Efate, where he remained, except for short breaks, for the rest of his life.

There are 33 letters. The first four were written in New Zealand, and all but one of the rest from the New Hebrides - mainly Nguna.

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

Correspondence with private individuals including Albert Hahl, governor of German New Guinea, from 1902-14. The correspondence with Hahl covers the period 1903-16. Other correspondents represented on the microfilm are: Albert Einstein, 1918-30; Mathias Erzberger, 1914-19; Richard Fisk, 1913-29/35; Bruno Fuchs, 1914-18; H. Gerlich, 1889-95, 1915-18; Otto Glein, 1911-16; Fritz Haber, 1924-29; Maximilien von Hagen, 1918-35; Ewald Herker, 1914-20; Edmund and Elizabeth von Heyking, 1914-24; Alfred von Heymel, 1912-14; Gottlieb von Jagow, 1914-34 (Continued on reel PMB 587)

Margaret was born in Maryborough Qld in 1925 and educated in local schools except for one year at Sommerville Brisbane. She has worked as a bank clerk, as a private tutor on a cattle property and did a year at Queensland University and a year of nursing. Margaret and James Tedder lived in the Solomon Islands from 1952 until 1974. During the last years of her residence there, after the children went to Australian schools, Margaret did a lot of bush touring carrying out research on plants used by the Islanders for medicines, cures and other purposes. Most of Margaret Tedder’s plant identifications were checked in the now defunct Forest Herbarium where she lodged duplicates of the plants. These may now (2011) held in the University of South Pacific Herbarium, Suva. On retirement to Australia in 1975 Margaret did a bachelors degree in University of Adelaide majoring in anthropology and Pacific history. Cf. Margaret & James Tedder, Gardening: album of photographs of subsistence gardening in Eastern and Central Solomon Islands, 1955-1974. PMB Photo 48. M.M. Tedder and J.L.O. Tedder, Yams, a description of their cultivation on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, SPC Technical Paper No.169, Noumea, South Pacific Commission, 1974; 85 pp., illus. by B. House. Judith Hoye, “Custom medicine in Moli District, Guadalcal”, n.d. (1973?). Ts., roneo, 23pp., at PMB 1365/55.

Index cards on medicinal and other useful plants in the Solomon islands, A-Z, arranged by plant family. The cards record: Name; Family; Habitat; Constituents; Therapeutic activity; Local names; Sources of information; Preparation and use; Regions reporting use; Other locations reporting use. They are coded as follows, Dx = Diagnostic; Rx = Pharmaceutical (‘recipe’). Margaret Tedder undertook some comparative follow-up research in NSW in 1982 which is marked on some of the cards. Additional documents consist of :
• Plant uses, arranged by family A-Z. Excerpts from index cards arranged by plant use.
• Most of the information has been obtained from Central and Makira /Ulawa Province, Most of the plant vernacular provided is not placed into a specific language group or dialect. The main language groups include: Temotu, Malaita-San Cristobal, Gela-Guadalcanal and New Georgia
• List of Informats.
• Codes for Index cards.
See Finding aids for details.