List of massacres in the Solomon Islands

The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the Solomon Islands archipelago prior to the formation of the nation state of Solomon Islands (numbers may be approximate):

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
Lavinia massacre 1872 Nggela Islands 6 Death of the crew of the trading schooner Lavinia while collecting bêche-de-mer.[1]
Sandfly Passage incident October 1880 Nggela Islands 4 Death of Lieutenant Bower, commander of HMS Sandfly, and 3 crewmen.[2][3][4]
Young Dick massacre 20 May 1886 Malaita 12 Death of about 6 crewman and 6 Malaitans on the schooner Young Dick while on a blackbirding voyage.[5][6]
Albatros massacre 10 August 1896 Guadalcanal 5 Massacre of Baron von Norbeck, geologist and director of the Imperial and Royal Geological Society of Vienna and 4 crewman of the Albatros, killed while climbing Mount Lammas.[7]
Malaita massacre October 3, 1927

October 12, 1927

Malaita 15 Europeans

40-200 Kwaio

Death of William R. Bell, the District Officer of Malaita, his assistant Lilley, and another thirteen of his deputies while collecting tax.[8] About sixty people were shot in the punitive expedition; about 200 men were taken to jail in Tulagi, where 31 died of dysentery. 6 were hanged and 17 were sentenced to long prison terms.[8]

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ^ "Lavinia Massacre". Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893-1978. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  2. ^ "Sandfly Passage, Nggela, Incident, 1880". Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893-1978. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  3. ^ Lawrence, David Russell (October 2014). "Chapter 5 Liberalism, Imperialism and colonial expansion" (PDF). The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific. ANU Press. pp. 149–151. ISBN 9781925022032.
  4. ^ "How Kalekona Got His Head". IV(11) Pacific Islands Monthly. 22 June 1934. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  5. ^ S. Ablott (1 May 2014). "Schooner 'Young Dick'". Burton upon Stather Heritage Group. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  6. ^ "Young Dick Massacre, Malaita, 1886". Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893-1978. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  7. ^ Lawrence, David Russell (October 2014). "Chapter 6 The British Solomon Islands Protectorate: Colonialism without capital" (PDF). The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific. ANU Press. pp. 173–176. ISBN 9781925022032.
  8. ^ a b "Bell, William Robert (1876 - 1927)". Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893-1978. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
References
  • Roger Keesing and Peter Corris. Lightning Meets the West Wind: The Malaita Massacre. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1980.
  • Swinden, G. The natives appear restless tonight; HMAS Adelaide and the punitive expedition to Malaita 1927 in Maritime power in the twentieth century: the Australian experience, D. Stevens, ed. Allen and Unwin, 1998, 54–67.