Merle Farland was a piano teacher and Methodist nurse working in the Solomon Islands. Apart from her work as a nurse, Merle worked as a coastwatcher operating radio equipment. Based on her resemblance to the famed pilot, a rumour began that she was indeed Amelia Earhart. The
After being evacuated from New Georgia to an American base near Tulagi, her expertise in tropical diseases made her services invaluable. She later served in New Caledonia and Guadalcanal with the New Zealand 3rd Division and on the hospital ship Maunganui. She received an MBE in 1947 for her services in the Solomons during the war.
After the war Merle worked for the World Health Organisation across the globe.
Merle Farland
Died 1988
IMAGE: Merle Farland, from Lonely Vigil, Coastwatchers of the Solomons by Walter Lord, via Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph
