Biographical entry: Gorringe, Roy ( - 1950s)

Died
1950s

Details

C.R.M. (Roy) Gorringe was said to have been a 'remittance man', the son of a titled English family. He arrived in the Solomons from New Zealand in about 1911. In 1912 he leased 1,100 acres at Bubuliba Point on Isabel, but he allowed the lease to lapse. He took up another thousand acres at Huhurangi on the east coast of the island, although in the 1920s the land was registered in the name of his brother Frank R. M. Gorringe, perhaps to prevent Roy from selling the plantation. Roy was away from the Solomons from 1918 to the mid-1920s, but later in the 1920s the plantation was in Roy's name. He married a local woman and they had one child, Elizabeth Lucy, who married Norman Palmer (q.v.). When the Second World War (q.v.) reached the Solomons, Gorringe sailed to Port Vila in the New Hebrides with Charlie Biggnel and made his way to Sydney. He returned in 1946 and worked on Lever Brothers vessels. He never attempted to restore his plantation, which he eventually sold to R. G. (Bob) Symes (q.v.), and he returned to Australia. He later came back once again and in his later years he lived at Huhurangi. Tall and slightly built, Gorringe drank excessively and died in Honiara in the mid-1950s. (Golden 1993, 320-321)

Published resources

Books

  • Golden, Graeme A., The Early European Settlers of the Solomon Islands, Graeme A. Golden, Melbourne, 1993. Details