Vale December 1986
ABBOTT, Terrence | CATTELL, Frederick E | CHESTER, Neville | CRIDLAND, Pearl | GRAINGER, Paula | PRIOR, Alfred John | RICH, Mabs |
Alfred John PRIOR (17 August 1986)
Former Health Extension Officer Port Moresby, he leaves a widow, Linda.
Terrence ABBOTT (13 September 1986)
Former Deputy Director, Medical Services in Moresby, he leaves a widow, Patricia.
Neville CHESTER (23 September 1986)
Retired as Admin Officer in Foreign Relations and Trade, and has suffered several spells in hospital. He leaves a widow, Florence.
Paula GRAINGER (10 October 1986)
Widow of John Grainger, ex-Corrective Services Officer, who died in 1972.
Pearl CRIDLAND (13 October 1986, aged 93)
Widow of Alfred, pre-war Resident Magistrate at Tufi. Post-war they became planters then operated the Wanigela Rest House for tourists. She leaves a daughter, Mrs Desiree Kelly.
Frederick E CATTELL (October 1986, aged 92)
After an accident. He leaves a son, Frederick Ronald Cattell.
Mabs RICH (2 October 1986)
Wife of Mack Rich, who retired from Native Affairs HQ in the early fifties.
In 1970, I stayed at the Wanigela Rest House after a bout of malaria contracted in Safia. My generous hosts were Alfred and Pearl Cridland who regaled me with tales of long service in bad stations and not-so-bad ones like Daru and Cape Nelson-Tufi. They addressed each other in the Motu terms as “Taubada” and “Sinabada”. They also had the most amazing collection of PNG artefacts I have ever seen in their Wanigela house, accumulated since Alfred first arrived in Papua in 1914, some 56 years earlier. the Cridlands were offered US$1 million for their collection by a visiting American tourist aboard the “MS Lindblad Explorer” which was anchored in Collingwood Bay nearby. This vessel was later to be the first vessel of that kind used specifically to sail the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean. She was also the first cruise ship to sink there, after striking an iceberg on 23 November 2007. All passengers and crew were rescued. Sort of a “good news story” version of the Titanic.