Thomas Francis Tom Neale was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but his family moved to Greymouth while he was still a baby, and then to Timaru when he was seven years old.
20 Facts About Tom Neale
1.
2.
Tom Neale's parents were Frank Frederick Neale and Emma Sarah Neale.
3.
Tom Neale joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a young man, but at 18 was too old to become an apprentice seaman, and signed on as an apprentice engineer instead.
4.
Tom Neale spent the next six years wandering from island to island, taking short term jobs on inter-island trade ships, clearing bush or planting bananas.
5.
Tom Neale was then offered a job as a relieving storekeeper in the Cook Islands, running small shops in various islands while their normal keepers were on leave.
6.
Tom Neale met with author Robert Dean Frisbie in Rarotonga, and was entranced by his tales of the atoll of Suwarrow, where Frisbie had lived with his family.
7.
In 1945, Tom Neale had the opportunity to visit Suwarrow briefly when a ship dropped in stores for the World War II coast-watchers living there.
8.
Tom Neale decided that this was the place he wanted to live.
9.
The pigs were a liability as they destroyed vegetation and made planting a garden impossible; Tom Neale built a hunting stand in a tree and speared the pigs over the course of several months.
10.
Tom Neale planted a garden, domesticated the chickens, and repaired the boat.
11.
Ten months after arriving at Suwarrow, Tom Neale had his first visitors: two couples on a yacht, who had been advised of Tom Neale's existence by the British Consul in Tahiti and asked to call in to check on him.
12.
Tom Neale returned to his hut on the opposite side of the atoll with difficulty, and lay semi-paralysed for four days.
13.
Helm and W H Percival, Neale returned to Rarotonga in July 1954.
14.
Tom Neale's diary held by his daughter Stella confirmed that he returned to Rarotonga in 1954.
15.
Tom Neale married in June 1956 to a woman, Sarah Haua of Palmerston Island on Rarotonga.
16.
Tom Neale wished to return to Suwarrow once his back was fully healed, but the government did not want the responsibility for him.
17.
Tom Neale married Sarah Haua was born on c 1924 and on 15 June 1956.
18.
On December 27,1963, after three and a half years on the island, Tom Neale voluntarily returned to Rarotonga.
19.
Tom Neale stayed there until 1977, when he was found ill with stomach cancer by a yacht and taken to Rarotonga.
20.
Tom Neale's grave is in the RSA cemetery on Rarotonga, opposite the airport.