Just recently, after travelling back home to visit friends and family on my ancestral home over the past antipodean winter, I received a document describing Wilbur V Lynham's memories of his experiences during WW2 on Norfolk Island. Often when we read on the war, its the violence, the battles, and comraderie of shared difficulties. Wilbur's experiences described here were rather different, but he nevertheless fulfilled an important (if minor) roll, as did so many, whom are never mentioned in the histories. I hope that you find some joy in reading about his exploits and memories, in his own words, as I have. Lastly, as I have to type this in myself, don't expect it to be updated on anything but a semi-regular basis; it's ca 48 A4 pages long...
The cover letter from my mother: "In 1995 Ian Kiernan, in his position as Secretary of Rotary, received a letter from Wilbur V Lynham who was writing the story of his life for his family. He (W.V.L) was most concerned to find that in his memorablia, the photo he thought he possessed of SIr Charles Rosenthal was missing. He asked if Ian, or some other Norfolk Islander, might have one they were willing to share a copy of. After some investigation, Ian found one. Ian and W.V.L. then corresponded for some time, exchanging Christmas cards and such. But Ian now says he has not heard from him for several years, so we presume that he may have passed on, or become too frail for such things."
The following pages are an excerpt from the writer's autobiography that was written for my family. These pages contain my memories of my experiences on beautiful Norfolk Island during World War II. It should be noted that in my work with American codes and cyphers I was not allowed to keep a diary while in service so what is written is from my memory of happenings some 50 years ago. I may have made errors in remembering things as they actually happened and may have omitted some things that really should be remembered. For any errors or omissions, I apologize. In rereading the story I have found it to be pretty accurate as I remember but I have found an item or two that may be out of chronological order but that do not detract nor change the story to the extent of needing revision. My Purpose in forwarding these pages to residents of present day Norfolk Island is only to give them an insight of the remembrances and experiences of an American who had the wonderful and unique opportunity of being assigned to live and work among the wonderful and friendly people who lived there and with the Royal New Zealand Airforce personnel who were assigned there at the time. The time frame of the period covered in these pages is from early November 1943 until late May 1945. During that 19 month period I was the only American assigned to Norfolk Island and it is with great pride and pleasure that I tell of my experiences in being there. It is my hope that these pages will be interesting to any who may read them and that this record may be placed with other records of Norfolk Island's experiences and contributions to the Allied successes of World War II Respectfully submitted <signed> William V. (Wib) Lynham
After we had been in Auckland for about a month Captain Roberts called us to his office one day and announced that one of us was going to be sent to an island about halfway between New Zealand and New Caledonia to assist an American Lieutenant who was serving as liaison officer to the New Zealand forces there and was supposedly supervising the use of American codes and ciphers there but needed some help. The Island was called Norfolk Island. The Captain said we could draw straws to see who went to Norfolk Island first and that the idea was that we would rotate so that each of us would spend a month on Norfolk and then be replaced by one of the others and would return to New Zealand. Yours truly drew the short straw which meant that I would be the first to go to Norfolk. Naturally at the time I thought that was bad luck and wished I could stay in Auckland, but as it turned out it was the best thing that ever happened to me in the service. On November 12, 1943 I boarded a plane for Norfolk Island and for my new duties there. <Editor's comment: Google Map showing Area between NZ and New Caledonia.>
As I recall the flight took about four hours as it was about 600 miles from Auckland. The island appeared out of nowhere as there are no other islands between New Zealand and Norfolk. The fact is there are no other islands between New Zealand and New Caledonia which is another 650 miles north of Norfolk. There are really three islands at Norfolk. The island of Norfolk is five miles long and three miles wide. Just off shore of Norfolk to the southeast is a little rock which is called Nepian Island and just to the southeast of that is a larger rock called Phillip Island. Why Nepian is even recognized I will never know as it is just a flat rock that probably sticks up about four or five feet out of the water and is probably fifty or sixty feet in diameter. Phillip is quite large in comparison and probably stands up to a peak of two or three hundred feet out of the water and is about a mile long by half a mile wide. There is some vegetation on Phillip Island but it is completely uninhabited. Some of the New Zealand Air Force personnel from Norfolk had been over to Phillip a time or two but found there was nothing there and no reason to go over to see. It was only about a quarter of a mile from Norfolk. Looking South East today, from QEII Lookout, towards Nepean, and Phillip Islands.
Norfolk itself is a beautiful island. The climate is semi-tropical with a temperature variation of about 50 to 80 degrees. The island stands about 500 feet above the water at most places although there is a beach area at the south end and a couple of other places where there are trails down to the water but for the most part it is high above the water level with cliffs nearly all around. in the center of the island are a couple of small moiontains wich peak about 1200 feet above sea level. the island was originally uninhabited so there are no natives there. Well back in history after it had been discovered by Captain Cook, the island was made into a prison colony for Australia and the worst and most vicious of criminals were sent there. Like our Alcatraz it was considered as an escape proof prison and it certainly would be since there was nowhere to escape to. With New Caledonia 600 miles to the north and the northern tip of New Zealand 450 miles south and Australia a good 1,000 miles west there was nowhere to go if you go out of the prison. There is a folk tale about a prisoner named Barney Duffey who supposedly escaped and lived in a hollow tree for seven years before he was found and recaptured. In fact, the hollow tree is still there and is known as Barney Duffey's Tree. It is big enough that a person could stay in out of the weather inside the tree and I suppose there might be some truth to the tale. I said there are no natives of Norfolk Island. I should say there are not native people of Norfolk Island. The true native of the island is the Norfolk Island Pine Tree which we know as a decorative house plant and which is used quite a lot as an ornamental tree. On Norfolk Island thees things are huge and can reach as high as 200 feet and be several feet in diameter. They are beautiful to see and are very hardy and sturdy and can stand strong winds and are really plentiful on the island. The island is volcanic in soil and is extremely fertile. The people who live there now say they can throw any kind of seeds out the door and be sure that they will germinate and grow. This certainly seems true as I saw all kinds of plants growing all over the island but with the exception of banana plantations nothing was really cultivated. You can walk or ride a horse along any of the roads on the island and pick several varieties of edible things. There are even peaches growing on the island. I have learned since I got back to the states and worked in the fruit business for a while that peaches should not be possible on the island since it never gets cold enough for them to go dormant but there they were and I enjoyed them. Other fruits to be enjoyed were guavas, which tasted like delicious strawberries, passion fruit, which was an egg-shaped purple colored fruit whose pulp tasted like excellent grapes, and bananas, although most of these were cultivated and raised on the plantations. There were no wild animals on the island, not one insect of any kind, nor any snakes or anything else to make life unpleasant. The only natural things that ever gave any trouble were the hurricanes that swept across the island usually in the spring which would be along in October or November on that side of the world. There was only one place on the island that was flat and long enough for an airfield. The sad part of that is that prior to the war this area was an avenue of pines that ran for a mile down the island. In order to build the airfield which became necessary refueling base for planes to be able to travel the long distances between islands the avenue of pines had to be sacrificed. Many of the people who lived on the island when I was there told me about this beautiful double row of Norfolk Pines about 200 feet in height that had to be eliminated and about the American Engineers that were sent there to do the job. Other than that the people of Norfolk loved the Americans and had many dealings with them over the years as Norfolk was at one time an important whaling station in the Pacific and many AMerican whalers came there back in those days. There was a particular bay on one side of the island that was called Ball Bay due to the fact that it was quite rounded and almost looked as if a big ball had been cut into the island for the bay, and that bay was a favorite spot for whalers. Avenue of Pines
