Sir Jacob Vouza
Police Scout and WWII Coastwatcher · circa 1892–1984
Who is Sir Jacob Vouza?
Sir Jacob Charles Vouza was a Solomon Islands police officer and wartime scout best remembered for his role as a coastwatcher during the Guadalcanal campaign of the Second World War. Born around 1892 in Tasimboko on Guadalcanal, he joined the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Armed Constabulary in 1916 and served for twenty-five years, retiring as a sergeant major in 1941. When Japanese forces occupied Guadalcanal in 1942, Vouza returned to duty as a scout for the coastwatcher network run by district officer Martin Clemens, and on the day of the American landing he rescued a downed United States Navy aviator from Japanese-held territory. He was later captured by Japanese soldiers, interrogated, bayoneted, and left for dead after refusing to reveal Allied positions; he worked himself free of his bindings and struggled through the jungle to warn US Marines of an impending attack. For his courage he received the United States Silver Star and Legion of Merit and was made an honorary sergeant major of the US Marine Corps. He was knighted KBE in 1979 and died in 1984, buried in his Marine Corps tunic.
Sources: Walter Lord, Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons (Viking Press, 1977) · Jacob C. Vouza — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) · Pacific Wrecks, "Sir Jacob Charles Vouza" biographical entry (pacificwrecks.com)