Donald Gilbert Kennedy

Donald Gilbert Kennedy (March 1898 – 1976) was a teacher, then an administrator in the British colonial service in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. For his services as a Coastwatcher during the Pacific War (World War II), he was awarded the DSO, and the Navy Cross (U.S.). He published journal articles and books on the material culture of Vaitupu atoll, land tenure, and the language of the Ellice Islands.

Childhood and education

Kennedy, the son of Robert and Isabelle Kennedy (née Chisholm), was born at Springhills near Invercargill. The family moved to Oamaru in 1904 and Kennedy attended local public schools: Tokarahi primary school (1904–1910) and Waitaki Boys' High School (1911–1915).
He attended Kaikorai School in Dunedin where he gained a Teacher’s Certificate. He also completed the first part of an arts degree in French, Latin and History at Otago University, although he did not complete the degree. He served in the territorial army and in March 1918 he enlisted in the New Zealand army. When World War I ended in November 1918, he was a second lieutenant with his unit in training.
He was a teacher at the Native College at Ōtaki (1919) and Dannevirke High School (1920). In December 1920, he married Nellie Chapman; they divorced in 1944.

Service in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony

In 1921, he became assistant master at the Suva Boys’ Grammar School in Fiji. He accepted a position with the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) which administered the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) and was appointed the headmaster to the Banaban School on Ocean Island in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. In 1923, he went to the Ellice Islands to found and direct a new school called Elisefou (New Ellice) on Funafuti, which he moved to Vaitupu the next year as the food supply was better on that atoll. He was the headmaster for 8 years and was a disciplinarian who would not hesitate to beat his students. The two most famous Tuvaluans from the school were Tuvalu's first Governor General, Sir Fiatau Penitala Teo and its first Prime Minister, Toaripi Lauti. In 1925–26 he built himself a radio transmitter, which he used to send messages to New Zealand. He also taught students how to build and operate radio transmitters.

In 1926, he was instrumental in establishing the first co-operative store (''fusi'') on Vaitupu, which became a model for the bulk purchasing and selling cooperative stores established in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony to replace the stores operated by Palangi traders.

In 1929, Kennedy donated a large quantity of Tuvaluan artefacts to the Otago Museum. He published ''Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands'' in the Journal of the Polynesian Society in instalments between 1929 and 1932 and as a book in 1931.

In April 1932 Kennedy became the resident District Officer at Funafuti in the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. He also served as the Native Lands Commissioner from 1934 to 1938. In 1938 he was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship to study for a year at University College, Oxford for a Diploma in Anthropology. Kennedy’s plans to return to Funafuti was ended by a deputation of islanders to the WPHC Commissioner, Sir Harry Luke, who provided a list of grievances about Kennedy’s drunkenness, cruelty and “always eingafter the native women and girls.” However, this deputation does not appear to represent the commonly held opinion of the Ellice Islanders, as a second deputation asked for Kennedy to return to the islands to complete his work as Land Commissioner and because the Islanders were grateful for Kennedy's work including in educating the Islanders at Elisefou school. An investigation of the complains after World War II concluded that the allegations were ‘vague in the extreme’ and that, without a proper enquiry, including giving Kennedy the opportunity to respond to the allegations, no judgment could be formed about his culpability. In August 1939, the WPHC appointed Kennedy to an administrative position on Ocean Island.

Service in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in World War II

In 1940 he transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) to work at the protectorate headquarters on Tulagi. He was allocated the administration of the district of Gela in the Nggela Islands. Following the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, he was commissioned as a captain in the BSIP Defence Force. He continued in his administrative duties, with his responsibilities covering the north-western half of the Solomon Islands and included Ysabel, Nggela and the Shortland Islands.

He organised an intelligence-gathering network of local informants and messengers to carry out the role of Coastwatchers; who were planters, government officials, missionaries and islanders who went into hiding after the Japanese invasion of the Solomon Islands in 1942. The Coastwatchers monitored Japanese shipping and aircraft (reporting by radio) and also rescued Allied personnel who were stranded in the territory held by the Japanese.

On 20 April 1942, Kennedy established a base at Mahanga (Mahaga), which overlooked Thousand Ships Bay on the south coast of Santa Isabel Island. Following further Japanese advances, in July 1942 he transferred his headquarters to Seghe (Segi or Sergi) on the south coast of New Georgia, which was on the channel between New Georgia and Vangunu in the Western Province. On 7 August 1942, U.S. forces captured Tulagi and an airfield on Guadalcanal. As Seghe was under the flight path of the Japanese aircraft flying from Rabaul, Kennedy was able to provide warnings by radio to the U.S. forces of attacking aircraft. Kennedy reported on Japanese shipping in the New Georgia Sound