Cyril Cartwright took an appointment with the British Colonial Service in the Glibert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC) in 1934. In June 1934 Mr Cartwright toured the Central Gilbert Islands and in July he was appointed acting District Agent in the Southern Gilbert Islands, based at Beru. He returned to Ocean Island in June 1935 where he eventually became Government Secretary. Mr Cartwright remained on the Island, with four other Europeans, after most of the GEIC and Phosphate Commission staff and some of the Chinese and Gilbertese labourers were evacuated in early March 1942. Mr Cartwright died during the Japanese occupation, probably in 1943. (See A. Elllis, Mid-Pacific Outposts, 1946; p.22 & p.148.)

Mr Cartwright’s letters track his voyage from England to Sydney on the MV Moultan, January-February 1934; and from Melbourne to Ocean Island in March 1934 on board the MV Triona. They go on to describe many aspects of life on Ocean Island, which was the Colony headquarters at the time, Tarawa, and the Southern Gilbert Islands. The letters are mainly addressed to Mr Cartwright’s mother. A few are original letters, but most are transcript copies typed from the originals by Mr Cartwright’s cousin, Maud, for circulation among his family. (See letter dated 12 Feb 1936.) The letters include detailed descriptions Ocean, Tarawa, Maiana, Nikunan, Onotoa, Arorae, Tamana, Beru and Tabiteuea Islands, and of transport (including, government ships, boats, surf-boats, canoes and railway vehicles), accommodation of all types (with sketches), communications, food and other provisions, native and colonial governments in the GEIC, Gilbertese dances (including the ‘Barei’ dance performed on Beru), and Mr Cartwright’s daily round on Ocean Island. There are also comments on rivalry between Protestant and Catholic missions, an account of transfer of 50 lepers from Gilberts to Makogai leper settlement in Fiji, and descriptions of BPC recruiting practices in the Gilbert Islands.

Mr Cartwright’s letters include accounts of his associations with Gilbertese, Elllice Islander, Nauruan, Ocean Islander and Chinese workers, as well as with traders, missionaries and European officers of the Colonial Service and the British Phosphate Commission. Among others, the letters refer to James Burns (Burns Philp & Co), Mr Barley (GEIC Resident Commissioner) and his wife, Mr Leembrugggen (Government Secretary), Major Swinburne (Senior District Officer), Mr Clarke (Treasurer) and Mrs Clarke, Mr Bentley (Accountant) and Mrs Bentley, Mr Methuen (Police Officer) and Mrs Methuen, Mr English (Clerk of the Treasury), Kumkee (On Chong’s Butaritari manager), Captain Heyen (Australian master on the On Chong’s ship, the Macquarie), Narruhn (Burns Philp manager at Butaritari), Mr Kansaki (manager of Nanyo Boyeki Kaisha at Butaritari), Fr Guichard (Roman Catholic Priest at Butaritari), Mr Murdoch at Kuria, Harry and Honor Maude at Beru, Noa (Native Magistrate, Tabiteuea), Timau (Chief Kambure, Tabiteuea), Bishop Kempthorne, Mr Barrrack (Auditor), Captain Forbes (temporary master of Govt ship Nimanoa), the Eastmans (missionaries at Beru), Sir Arthur Richards (High Commissioner); and Mr Cartwright’s Islander servants and assistants, Temate and Kilifi (the latter an Ellice Islander), Iebeta and Barao (house boys), Kaburara (Interpreter), Teariki (Police orderly).
See Finding aids for details.