Neil Murray was born in 1937 and raised in Mackay, Queensland, where his parents ran a milk bar. Murray’s father was a communist and often hosted international communists in the family home. Neil was rejected for a Queensland Teachers Scholarship because of his father’s political views. Instead, Neil worked for a time as a cadet draftsman for the Queensland Irrigation and Water Supply Commission.

In 1955, Murray was accepted as a Cadet Education Officer to serve in the Territory of Papua New Guinea. He commenced his training at Bathurst Teachers’ College on 5 March 1956, as well as attending courses at the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA). He arrived in Port Moresby on 17 January 1958 for orientation, before taking on a challenging post in the one-teacher Sogeri Primary A School. After the first term, Murray was transferred to Sogeri Secondary School to teach a combined Papua New Guinean Grade 8 class where many students were older than him. Murray continued to teach at Sogeri Secondary School until 1962, teaching future Prime Ministers, Governors General, heads of government departments and senior public servants.

In 1962, Murray was involved in running a special Queensland Junior Certificate class for twenty promising public servants. Many of these men went on to play critical roles in the transition to Papua New Guinean independence. Murray visited many students in their home villages and taking photographs. He self-published a book documenting this period called, ‘Education officer, T.P.N.G.: a story of my first five years teaching in the territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1958-1962’.

In 1963, Murray was appointed to Malabunga High School in Rabaul, East New Britain Province, before taking up the post of Headmaster at Hutjena High School in Buka, Bougainville in 1967. Murray remained at Hutjena until 1973, during which time he oversaw major construction work at the school as classrooms, staff housing, water tanks and furniture were built to accommodate the new high school grades being added each year. The school site had been a Japanese base during the Second World War and students would often bring war relics to school. Murray documented these major social changes, as well as his many visits to students’ home villages. He self-published a book about this period, ‘Hutjena High School Buka: a story of my seven years as headmaster at Hutjena High School in Buka 1967-1973’.

Murray was appointed School Inspector in the East Sepik in 1973 and was later promoted to Superintendent Secondary & Vocational Inspections. Towards the end of his career, Murray served in the Materials Section of the Curriculum Unit in Port Moresby, where he wrote a set of Social Science booklets and cultural maps.

In 2001, Murray retired to Australia, first in Mackay, then later Cairns where he died in 2025. Murray developed strong friendships during his 43 years in Papua New Guinea which continued until the end of his life.

Naval officer, born 9 October 1887 at Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Son of Captain Christopher Garsia and Elizabeth Parker Garsia (nee Watson). Educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and later in England on HMS Britannia (the Royal Navy's training ship). Brother of Lieutenant Oliver Dunham Melville Garsia, Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry (Information from Auckland War Memorial Museum cenotaph records).

Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Commander) Theodorus Bailey Myers Mason was founder and first head of the United States Office of Naval Intelligence, with the post of Chief Intelligence Officer (prior to it being designated as Director of Naval Intelligence in 1911). From a distinguished New York family, he was son of Theodorus Bailey Myers, a lawyer and a Colonel in the United States Army during the Civil War. He took his name Mason from his maternal grandfather who had no heirs. Graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1868, before travelling extensively with the US Navy. Married to Edmonia Taylor Phelps in 1875. Mason retired in 1894 and died 1899 in New York State.

Rev. Dr Ernest Edgar Vyvyan Collocott was a missionary and scholar born 7 June 1886 at Northcote, Melbourne, son of Victorian-born parents Alfred John Collocott, a Methodist minister who had recently returned from Fiji, and his wife Alice Jane, née Bickford. E.E.V. Collocate entered the Methodist ministry in 1911 and the same year went to Tonga as a missionary with his wife Edith Idabelle Bickford. In 1915, he became principal of Tupou College, Nuku'alofa. Collocott conducted his own research of the history and culture of Tonga and published as well as acting as an intermediary for other researchers. He is also known for his peace activism.

A missionary with the London Missionary Society in the Society Islands from 1861 to 1886. From May 1870, he was stationed on Tahiti, but made frequent visits to other islands.

Archdeacon Gill, from a family of Pacific missionaries, joined the Anglican mission to Papua in 1908. Ordained at Dogura in 1910, and his first parish was at Boianai, where he remained until 1922. He moved to the Mamba district, where he established a temporary station at Manau on the mouth of the Mamba (or Mambare) River. Two years later he began work on Duvira (Maimba) Mission, which became his head station for 18 years. Duvira was destroyed by the Japanese in 1942. In 1943, he began building a new mission station at nearby Dewade. Retired in 1952, Gill died in England in 1954.