Middleton, Stanley, 1902-1991

Stanley Guise Middleton initially travelled to Papua in late 1925 or early 1926 to take up employment as a bookkeeper at the Tahira Copper Mine at Bootless Inlet, near Port Moresby. However, soon after taking up his new position the mine was foreclosed and Middleton found himself unemployed in an unfamiliar town and country. He then joined the colonial administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, and worked as a patrol officer for the Papuan Magisterial Department until the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, Middleton returned to Australia for family reasons. In May 1942, at the height of the Battle of the Coral Sea, he was posted to Port Moresby on special intelligence duties. Following the war, Middleton left Papua for Perth where he took up the position of Commissioner for the Department of Native Affairs, 1948-1964. In retirement, Middleton began writing recollections of his early life and his experiences in Papua, but his work was hampered by the loss of his Papuan documents. Middleton's patrol diaries, photographs of the Papuan tribes people he had dealings with, family records, and articles and stories he had written were all lost through vandalism that had occurred during the war. After Middleton died in 1991, his memoir was transcribed by his son, Trevor Middleton, and named Taubada, and made available to the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau for preservation.