Here's to you, Bill Brown

 

"Hi Peter

I was wandering through your blog this morning and I noticed the caption on pic 3, page 5 has a minor booboo that you might wish to amend, viz. "The Royal Yacht in Kieta Harbour in March 1971 with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh aboard". The Queen did not visit Bougainville in 1971; the Duke of Edinburgh came on his own.

Also the caption for pic 2 on page 10 might be suspect. Perhaps "Catres Island, somewhere north of Buka, near Nissan Island" is a reference to the Carterets.

I have attached a couple of photos of Philip at Panguna on Thursday, 18 March 1971.

I really enjoy your blog.

Best Wishes
Bill Brown"

 

 

Bill Brown MBE, now 92, was a kiap in Papua New Guinea. In 1969 he was appointed District Commissioner for the CRA project area and was given responsibility for the entire Bougainville District in 1971.

While Bill and I have never met, after several email exchanges a certain image emerged in my mind which I had trouble to put into words. I've just found them after reading about him in another blog: "Where there is precision, there is always Bill Brown". Precisely!!! :-)

His blogs at https://www.pngattitude.com/a-kiaps-chronicle.html make for compelling - and precise - reading.

Email received from Kay Harbert: "I was browsing your site last night and came across the May 2022 post 'Here’s to you Bill Brown'. Our family was living on Bougainville Island at the time of Prince Philip’s visit in 1971. My father, Keith Widt, took quite a few pics that day and we were all very excited as Prince Philip spoke to my mother, Marion; however, Dad did not have a photograph of that moment. You can hardly imagine my joy last night, when scrolling through Bill Brown’s photographs of that visit, and I saw a photograph of Prince Philip talking to my mother!!! My younger sister Helen is also in the photograph. My sister and I vividly remember our three years living in the jungle and our favourite place on earth is Loloho Beach. Dad would take us swimming there when he came home from work. Dad worked on Bougainville from about 1969 to 1977. Returned to Bundaberg for a year, then began working in Indonesia in 1978. He finally returned to Australia about 2004. Sadly, both Dad and Mum have passed away. "

All photos courtesy of Bill Brown