Description

The island of Nakapu was the scene of the death of the Rt. Rev. John Coleridge Patteson in 1871. It is an outlying island in the Reef (or Swallow) group of islands, which is in turn part of the group known as the Santa Cruz islands. The Santa Cruz islands form politically the province of Temotu in the Solomon Islands. The latter were declared a British protectorate in 1893 and achieved independence in 1978 as a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.