Captain John Joseph 'Mangrove' Murphy, patrol officer, prisoner of war and amateur linguist, was born in Queensland in 1914. He was educated at Christian Brothers' College, Maryborough, St Joseph's College, Nudgee and the University of Queensland (although he did not take a degree). He moved to New Guinea in ca.1936 and became a patrol officer, compiling a dictionary of Pidgin English which was published in 1942. He joined the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit and the Allied Intelligence Bureau during the Second World War and was captured in 1943. He was the only Australian among the seven survivors of the Rabaul prisoner of war camp and was tried at court-martial for treason thanks to suspected collaboration with the Japanese: he was honourably acquitted of all charges. Murphy worked as a colonial administrator after the war in the Western and Gulf districts of PNG and returned to Australia in 1969.