~~~~~~~~~~Civilian War Dead, World War Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frederick Gerard Mannes was born in 1909 in central Victoria. He joined the Marist Brothers in the 1920s and took the name Brother Augustine. By 1941 Brother Augustine was Principal at a Marist Brothers school in Mossman, NSW. Bishop Wade SM, Bishop of Northern Solomons, asked for Australian Marist Brothers to come and teach at a school in his Vicariate. Inspite of the looming war Brother Augustine applied and with two other Marist teachers, Brother Donatus and Brother Ervan, was slated to teach at the school at Chabai on Bouganville.
As the war came closer Australian soldiers occupied the small island of Sohano in the Buka Passage. The district office of the colonial government had also been on Sohano, about 12 kilometres north of Chabai. Japanese aeroplanes bombed the Buka Passage and then, only a few months after the Brothers arrived, the Japanese occupied Bouganville. At first the Brothers and students hid from the Japanese. They lived in the bush and posted look outs, but Bishop Wade came to see them and told them hiding was useless and to return to the school.
The Japanese came in May 1942 and met with the Brothers, they ordered the brothers to assemble all the students. The Japanese told the group there was going to be a war and all the students had to leave the school immediately. The Brothers were placed on parole at the mission school. The Japanese visited regularily and the Brothers also had to report regularily to Japanese on Sohano Island. In the process the Japanese thoroughly looted the school. On August 14, seven days after the American landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese removed the brothers to Sohano Island. Local people reported seeing the brothers alive on the island for some time but after this the story gets increasingly vague and contradictory.
At the end of the war the Minister for External Affairs wrote to the Marists that on August 19, 1942 the Brothers had been placed on a Japanese cruiser and they had been unable to find any subsaquent trace. The three Brothers were declared lost as of August 20, 1942. The Marist Brothers and the family believed they had been on the Montevideo Maru. However slowly stories started to emerge that preclude that as a possibility.
In 1942 a friend of the Brothers – Laurie Chan – had a tradestore at Porton near Chabai. The Australian soldiers had urged Laurie and the missionaries to take off however the missionaries refused and Laurie couldn't as his wife was ready to have a baby. Laurie and his wife were taken prisoner by the Japanese and Laurie was forced to work as an interpreter. He says the Japanese suspected the Brothers were spying and were eventually loaded on to a landing craft and taken out to Sohano Island in the Buka Passage where they were locked up. Laurie Chan said he believed they were kept there for some months as the three brothers were interrogated and then later executed there on the beach at Sohano. This likelihood is supported by other accounts out of Bouganville just after the war, including those collected by an Australian soldier who was a former student of Brother John and from local people living at nearby Tarlena Mission Station. These accounts also state the bodies were not buried, possibly to be found later, but burnt on the beach. This version has the deaths sometime in October or November 1942.
The three of them are commemorated on a monument at Mittagong NSW and a memorial on Sohano Island in the Buka Passage. Brother Augustine's generation of the family have died never knowing what happened to him.
Frederick Gerard Mannes was born in 1909 in central Victoria. He joined the Marist Brothers in the 1920s and took the name Brother Augustine. By 1941 Brother Augustine was Principal at a Marist Brothers school in Mossman, NSW. Bishop Wade SM, Bishop of Northern Solomons, asked for Australian Marist Brothers to come and teach at a school in his Vicariate. Inspite of the looming war Brother Augustine applied and with two other Marist teachers, Brother Donatus and Brother Ervan, was slated to teach at the school at Chabai on Bouganville.
As the war came closer Australian soldiers occupied the small island of Sohano in the Buka Passage. The district office of the colonial government had also been on Sohano, about 12 kilometres north of Chabai. Japanese aeroplanes bombed the Buka Passage and then, only a few months after the Brothers arrived, the Japanese occupied Bouganville. At first the Brothers and students hid from the Japanese. They lived in the bush and posted look outs, but Bishop Wade came to see them and told them hiding was useless and to return to the school.
The Japanese came in May 1942 and met with the Brothers, they ordered the brothers to assemble all the students. The Japanese told the group there was going to be a war and all the students had to leave the school immediately. The Brothers were placed on parole at the mission school. The Japanese visited regularily and the Brothers also had to report regularily to Japanese on Sohano Island. In the process the Japanese thoroughly looted the school. On August 14, seven days after the American landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese removed the brothers to Sohano Island. Local people reported seeing the brothers alive on the island for some time but after this the story gets increasingly vague and contradictory.
At the end of the war the Minister for External Affairs wrote to the Marists that on August 19, 1942 the Brothers had been placed on a Japanese cruiser and they had been unable to find any subsaquent trace. The three Brothers were declared lost as of August 20, 1942. The Marist Brothers and the family believed they had been on the Montevideo Maru. However slowly stories started to emerge that preclude that as a possibility.
In 1942 a friend of the Brothers – Laurie Chan – had a tradestore at Porton near Chabai. The Australian soldiers had urged Laurie and the missionaries to take off however the missionaries refused and Laurie couldn't as his wife was ready to have a baby. Laurie and his wife were taken prisoner by the Japanese and Laurie was forced to work as an interpreter. He says the Japanese suspected the Brothers were spying and were eventually loaded on to a landing craft and taken out to Sohano Island in the Buka Passage where they were locked up. Laurie Chan said he believed they were kept there for some months as the three brothers were interrogated and then later executed there on the beach at Sohano. This likelihood is supported by other accounts out of Bouganville just after the war, including those collected by an Australian soldier who was a former student of Brother John and from local people living at nearby Tarlena Mission Station. These accounts also state the bodies were not buried, possibly to be found later, but burnt on the beach. This version has the deaths sometime in October or November 1942.
The three of them are commemorated on a monument at Mittagong NSW and a memorial on Sohano Island in the Buka Passage. Brother Augustine's generation of the family have died never knowing what happened to him.
~~~~~~~~~~Civilian War Dead, World War Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frederick Gerard Mannes was born in 1909 in central Victoria. He joined the Marist Brothers in the 1920s and took the name Brother Augustine. By 1941 Brother Augustine was Principal at a Marist Brothers school in Mossman, NSW. Bishop Wade SM, Bishop of Northern Solomons, asked for Australian Marist Brothers to come and teach at a school in his Vicariate. Inspite of the looming war Brother Augustine applied and with two other Marist teachers, Brother Donatus and Brother Ervan, was slated to teach at the school at Chabai on Bouganville.
As the war came closer Australian soldiers occupied the small island of Sohano in the Buka Passage. The district office of the colonial government had also been on Sohano, about 12 kilometres north of Chabai. Japanese aeroplanes bombed the Buka Passage and then, only a few months after the Brothers arrived, the Japanese occupied Bouganville. At first the Brothers and students hid from the Japanese. They lived in the bush and posted look outs, but Bishop Wade came to see them and told them hiding was useless and to return to the school.
The Japanese came in May 1942 and met with the Brothers, they ordered the brothers to assemble all the students. The Japanese told the group there was going to be a war and all the students had to leave the school immediately. The Brothers were placed on parole at the mission school. The Japanese visited regularily and the Brothers also had to report regularily to Japanese on Sohano Island. In the process the Japanese thoroughly looted the school. On August 14, seven days after the American landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese removed the brothers to Sohano Island. Local people reported seeing the brothers alive on the island for some time but after this the story gets increasingly vague and contradictory.
At the end of the war the Minister for External Affairs wrote to the Marists that on August 19, 1942 the Brothers had been placed on a Japanese cruiser and they had been unable to find any subsaquent trace. The three Brothers were declared lost as of August 20, 1942. The Marist Brothers and the family believed they had been on the Montevideo Maru. However slowly stories started to emerge that preclude that as a possibility.
In 1942 a friend of the Brothers – Laurie Chan – had a tradestore at Porton near Chabai. The Australian soldiers had urged Laurie and the missionaries to take off however the missionaries refused and Laurie couldn't as his wife was ready to have a baby. Laurie and his wife were taken prisoner by the Japanese and Laurie was forced to work as an interpreter. He says the Japanese suspected the Brothers were spying and were eventually loaded on to a landing craft and taken out to Sohano Island in the Buka Passage where they were locked up. Laurie Chan said he believed they were kept there for some months as the three brothers were interrogated and then later executed there on the beach at Sohano. This likelihood is supported by other accounts out of Bouganville just after the war, including those collected by an Australian soldier who was a former student of Brother John and from local people living at nearby Tarlena Mission Station. These accounts also state the bodies were not buried, possibly to be found later, but burnt on the beach. This version has the deaths sometime in October or November 1942.
The three of them are commemorated on a monument at Mittagong NSW and a memorial on Sohano Island in the Buka Passage. Brother Augustine's generation of the family have died never knowing what happened to him.
Frederick Gerard Mannes was born in 1909 in central Victoria. He joined the Marist Brothers in the 1920s and took the name Brother Augustine. By 1941 Brother Augustine was Principal at a Marist Brothers school in Mossman, NSW. Bishop Wade SM, Bishop of Northern Solomons, asked for Australian Marist Brothers to come and teach at a school in his Vicariate. Inspite of the looming war Brother Augustine applied and with two other Marist teachers, Brother Donatus and Brother Ervan, was slated to teach at the school at Chabai on Bouganville.
As the war came closer Australian soldiers occupied the small island of Sohano in the Buka Passage. The district office of the colonial government had also been on Sohano, about 12 kilometres north of Chabai. Japanese aeroplanes bombed the Buka Passage and then, only a few months after the Brothers arrived, the Japanese occupied Bouganville. At first the Brothers and students hid from the Japanese. They lived in the bush and posted look outs, but Bishop Wade came to see them and told them hiding was useless and to return to the school.
The Japanese came in May 1942 and met with the Brothers, they ordered the brothers to assemble all the students. The Japanese told the group there was going to be a war and all the students had to leave the school immediately. The Brothers were placed on parole at the mission school. The Japanese visited regularily and the Brothers also had to report regularily to Japanese on Sohano Island. In the process the Japanese thoroughly looted the school. On August 14, seven days after the American landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese removed the brothers to Sohano Island. Local people reported seeing the brothers alive on the island for some time but after this the story gets increasingly vague and contradictory.
At the end of the war the Minister for External Affairs wrote to the Marists that on August 19, 1942 the Brothers had been placed on a Japanese cruiser and they had been unable to find any subsaquent trace. The three Brothers were declared lost as of August 20, 1942. The Marist Brothers and the family believed they had been on the Montevideo Maru. However slowly stories started to emerge that preclude that as a possibility.
In 1942 a friend of the Brothers – Laurie Chan – had a tradestore at Porton near Chabai. The Australian soldiers had urged Laurie and the missionaries to take off however the missionaries refused and Laurie couldn't as his wife was ready to have a baby. Laurie and his wife were taken prisoner by the Japanese and Laurie was forced to work as an interpreter. He says the Japanese suspected the Brothers were spying and were eventually loaded on to a landing craft and taken out to Sohano Island in the Buka Passage where they were locked up. Laurie Chan said he believed they were kept there for some months as the three brothers were interrogated and then later executed there on the beach at Sohano. This likelihood is supported by other accounts out of Bouganville just after the war, including those collected by an Australian soldier who was a former student of Brother John and from local people living at nearby Tarlena Mission Station. These accounts also state the bodies were not buried, possibly to be found later, but burnt on the beach. This version has the deaths sometime in October or November 1942.
The three of them are commemorated on a monument at Mittagong NSW and a memorial on Sohano Island in the Buka Passage. Brother Augustine's generation of the family have died never knowing what happened to him.
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