Willie Stowers

Stowers was born in Lano on Savaii in September 1887, the son of Eugene James Simi Stowers and Mary Tereisea Fa'aletea Pa'u.[1] He was educated at the Marist Brothers School in Apia,[2] and later moved to Auckland in New Zealand, where he worked for John Burns & Co.[3]

He signed up for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in March 1916, and after three months training with the Mounted Rifles, departed for Europe in June.[3] He served in France alongside two of his brothers and was involved in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Messines,[3] during which he was shot in the neck. He subsequently recovered in a hospital in England.[4] After a short trip to see family in Samoa in 1918,[5] he returned to New Zealand.[3] However, he later came back to Samoa and became involved in horse racing during the 1920s.[6]

Following the introduction of the Legislative Assembly in 1948, he contested the European seats in the first elections as a member of the United Citizens Party, and was elected in fifth place.[7] His wife Bella died in April 1951,[8] and he did not contest the elections shortly afterwards. He died in Tokoroa in New Zealand in 1971.[9]