WITTS Maurice Myles
Born in Bombala, NSW in 1877 and died in Moss Vale, NSW in 1966. During 1899-1900 he worked for the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. in Fiji. In 1900 he enlisted in the Mounted Rifles and fought in the Boer War, after which he was discharged as a Sergeant in 1902. In 1904 he moved to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides where he established a coconut plantation at Hog Harbour. In 1904 he married Mabel Herring (born Sydney, 1877) on Santo. The Witts returned to Australia about 1913.
In a diary of Mabel Witts, 7 February to 4 November 1909, it describes daily life at Hog Harbour, including the birth of daughter Helen in October 1909. Family correspondence, business and other documents, 1900-17, 1931, 1941, 1968. Includes personal and official letters, printed material and other papers documenting inter alia: Maurice Witts' work in Fiji, 1900; Boer War service, 1902; planting activities on Santo, 1905; membership of the Legion of Frontiersmen, 1906-7; marriage in 1907; appointment as a police constable, 1911; and purchase of property at Wyong, NSW, 1911. Also includes letters from Witts to daughter Betty, 1931 and wife Mabel, 1941 and a letter from a firm of Port Vila Solicitors to Mrs Betty Tyler of Moss Vale re the ownership of Lathu Island off Hogg Harbour, 1968.
