Princess Sālote’s mother, Lavinia, died in 1902 when Sālote was just two years old. Her parents’ marriage had been quite controversial as King George had originally been meant to marry Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu, but he had chosen Lavinia instead. With Lavinia dead and in order to appease those who had been offended by his first marriage, he now chose to marry Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu’s half-sister, Princess ʻAnaseini Takipō. Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu herself had died in 1901 of tuberculosis.
George and Takipō were married on 11 November 1909. In the tradition of Tonga, children from an earlier marriage were in danger of being killed. George claimed he was sending Sālote away for her education, but she was sent on the earliest possible steamer in December 1909, and she left without the customary companions. She was brought to Auckland and left with a family called Kronfeld.1 A son was expected, and Takipō fell pregnant in 1910. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter named ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonelua, on 20 March 1911. Sālote never met this half-sister as the infant tragically died just five months later on 11 August 1911.
On 26 July 1912, she gave birth to a second daughter, Princess ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonetuku. Sālote received the news via telegram. Takipō’s family insisted on treating Fusipala as the only royal princess. Takipō was from a higher female line than Sālote’s mother, Lavinia. Sālote would later claim that the women of their family had bad blood.2 Despite the difference in status, Fusipala was behind Sālote in the line of succession. Sālote met her newborn half-sister at the end of 1912 when she returned home from school. On Fusipala’s first birthday, she was “adopted for nurturing” (kaukautama) by the premier, Polutele Kaho Tu’ivakano. He gave her the nickname Tokilupe.3
By 1917, it was clear that Takipō would have no more children. Without a son, Princess Sālote was first in the line of succession. In early 1917, the King became ill and was clearly in declining health. Around this time, a suitor for Sālote was found who met with the approval of the Privy Council, the public and the royal family. His name was Tungī Mailefihi. They were married on 19 September 1917. Her father looked well despite still being ill. Takipō wore a white silk dress and a light gold coronet, and five-year-old Fusipala acted as a flower girl.4
When King George Tupou II died on 5 April 1918, Sālote had just turned 18 years old, and she was six months pregnant. His immediate cause of death had been heart failure, although he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was still only 43 years old. Takipō attended his funeral “heavily veiled.” 5 Tonga went into six months of official mourning. During this time, Sālote gave birth to her first child, a son named Tāufaʻāhau Tupou. Between the death of the King and the birth of Sālote’s first child, Fusipala was first in the line of succession.
Fusipala and Takipō moved to Finefekai during the period of mourning. Disaster struck not much later. A ship had brought the deadly influenza virus to Tonga. The disease spread quickly, and the loss of life was immense. The royal family was not spared either. Queen Sālote’s husband became very ill, and Sālote was also sick but had no fever. Fusipala’s mother died of the disease on 25 November 1919, still only 25 years old. She was buried at Malaʻeʻaloa rather than the royal burial ground at Mala’ekula. Fusipala was now an orphan at the age of six.
Sālote became her little sister’s guardian, but it was Tongan custom for a child to be nurtured by her mother’s family, and Takipō’s family claimed their rights over Fusipala. To keep her from this influence, Sālote sent her to the household of Mateialona in Ha’apai, where she would be looked after by Sela and Rachel Tonga, as Sālote herself had been. Some of her family followed her to Ha’apai, and they complained when Fusipala was made to do small household tasks. In 1920, Sālote sent Fusipala to Auckland, where she would learn English and be able to attend the Diocesan School for Girls.6 But while Sālote had been happy being educated abroad, Fusipala was not, and she was allowed to return to Tonga in 1925 at the age of 13. However, she was sent abroad again to the Methodist Ladies’s College in Melbourne the following year after her family pressured the Queen to go ahead with a marriage proposal.
Her principal wrote to Queen Sālote, “She is proving herself a good student, with a quick mind and willingness to work, and she wins the respect and affection both of her fellow students and her teachers. Her general conduct is admirable, and I think she finds a real enjoyment in the life of the MLC. In music, she really has a touch of genius… A week ago, Fusipala was on the programme for a pianoforte solo by one of the great masters, and she played it magnificently. If it had been the Town Hall, she would have been encored. The girls cheered her till she had to go back to the piano.”7
Fusipala’s own ideas about marriage became quite clear when she wrote to her sister from Melbourne, “… You don’t seem to believe that I am not ever going to get married at all. You must realise by now that I have got more sense and that I am getting desperate over it. ‘Fefine tabu’ be hanged and let it go to blazes. Every hour brings me nearer to that awful man who is nearly three times my age, and you are not going to marry him, so you cannot possibly understand what my feelings are. I am leaving everything in your hands. Please, please, tell everybody in Tonga that you don’t want me to marry at all, for I would rather be dead than to be a stepmother to about half a dozen kids.”8
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.13
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.36
- Sālote: Queen of Paradise by Margaret Hixon p.38
- Sālote: Queen of Paradise by Margaret Hixon p.75
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.48
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.60
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.143-144
- Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.144
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