Biographical entry: Symes, R. C.
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R. C. Symes served as a Solomon Islands Labour Corps officer during the war. Trading as R.C. Symes & Co., in 1953 he purchased all of W. R. Carpenters' (q.v.) former plantations on Isabel and Guadalcanal. He succeeded in buying up most of the developed plantations on Isabel, and had a lucrative copra trade with Ontong Java atoll. A few years later his holdings were transferred to James Wong. (Bennett 1987, 308; Allan 1989, pt. 1, 59, 73)