Lieutenant R.G. Bowen, RAN, served in New Guinea during World War I with No. 6 Company of the Naval Battalion of the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force.

Father Gerard Bruns was born on the 17 August 1932. He arrived in the Solomon Islands in September 1960 and worked as a Marist priest on Makira, Solomon Islands. Fr. Bruns took a great interest in the people of Makira and has documented much about the Kahua language and the culture of east Makira in the Solomon Islands. In 2008, he moved to the Marist Brothers at Tenaru Secondary School outside of Honiara. Fr. Bruns moved again and now lives at Tanagai parish centre close to the sea shore which has been his home ever since.