Just a short note: if you search PapersPast (the online newspaper archive for New Zealand) for “H C Reynolds”, you get a 1926 mention in the Waiapu Church Gazette (no, I’m not making it up) of someone with that name from Wellington taking a Theological exam. The more you search, the more you find about this Reverend H Reynolds who ended up as an Anglican missionary in Melanesia before (and indeed during) the Second World War, and whose name was often written “H V C Reynolds”. But then the trail goes cold… so could this be our elusive man, hidden from view in the Solomon Islands, Aoba, and Lower Hutt? (Not to be confused with ‘JabbaThe’, of course).
…errrr, alas no. PapersPast archives peter out after WWII, reminding us once again that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. A web-based follow-up search reveals that this Reynolds was actually Henry [Harry] Vivian Collett Reynolds (b. Sep 1902), whose years of work as a Melanesian missionary brought him recognition. So, although he was someone of the right age, location and (mostly) name, he was also definitely not our missing man. Oh well!
It turns out that there’s a decent biographical entry on HVCR in the huge Blain Biographical Directory of Anglican clergy in the South Pacific (2011 edition) (though note that the PDF formatting is a bit haphazard if you try to copy-and-paste-from it). And just in case someone strolls past here looking for more information on this Venerable Archdeacon H V C Reynolds, I’ve put together all my notes here: H V C Reynolds. There’s bound to be much more on him in the Southern Cross Log, but I stopped when I’d hit my limit for researching Anglican Melanesian missionaries, I’m sure you understand. 😉
It was so easy back then for a person to change the name he was known by. No such thing as presenting points of i.d. to open a bank account, or rent a flat. It wasn’t illegal, either. A person could decide on a change and if it stuck for seven years, it could be entered on the electoral roll. Both my father and my stepfather changed their names, as did many emigrees and refugees. Not to depress you, but let’s hope the missing man had always kept his own.