Hammer DeRoburt (25 September 1922 – 15 July 1992) was the first

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the Republic of

Nauru Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in ...

, and ruled the country for most of its first twenty years of independence.

Background and early career

Born in 1922, DeRoburt was the grandson of a former Head Chief of Nauru and also had Banaban heritage, as his grandmother was from the island.Nancy Viviani (1970) ''Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress'' Australian National University Press, p. 107 After being educated on Nauru, he attended the Gordon Institute of Technology in

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. After returning to Nauru, he started working as a teacher. During the Japanese occupation of Nauru he was deported to Truk by the Japanese, along with most of the Nauruan population. When he returned to Nauru in 1946 he started working at the Department of Education. He decided to stand in the first elections to the

Local Government Council Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

in 1951, and although he gained enough support to be nominated as a candidate in the

Boe BOE, BoE or Boe may refer to: Abbreviations, acronyms or initialisms * Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom * Bank of English, a representative subset of the 4.5 billion words COBUILD corpus * Barrel of oil equivalent, a unit ...

constituency, he was disqualified due to irregularities in his nomination.Viviani, p108 Local residents and European residents protested without success, whilst a petition to the 1953 Visiting Mission from the United Nations was also overlooked. In 1955 elections he stood again in the Boe constituency and was elected to the Council. In 1956, the Council elected him the last Head Chief of Nauru.

Presidency of post-independence Nauru

DeRoburt led the country to independence on 31 January 1968 and was president for most of the period until 17 August 1989. In December 1976, younger politicians gained a majority and installed

Bernard Dowiyogo Bernard Annen Auwen Dowiyogo (14 February 1946 – 9 March 2003) was a Nauruan politician who served as President of Nauru on seven separate occasions. During this time, he also served as a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Ubenide. ...

as president, but DeRoburt returned to power in May 1978. He was also out of office for two short periods in September and December 1986. In his final term, DeRoburt's government filed a case against Australia in the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordan ...

for not rehabilitating mined-out areas of the island. His last public appearance was in the ICJ hearing in November 1991.

Personal

He was given an honorary knighthood by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

in 1982. DeRoburt is credited with popularising

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

to Nauru, which became the

national sport A national sport is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. Some sports are ''de facto'' (not established by law) national sports, as sumo is in Japan and Gaelic games are in Ireland and field hockey in Pakistan, while othe ...

. He died in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

in 1992 from diabetes mellitus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deroburt, Hammer 1922 births People from Boe District Nauruan educators People deported from Nauru Nauruan civil servants Head Chiefs of Nauru Members of the Parliament of Nauru Presidents of Nauru Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1992 deaths 20th-century Nauruan politicians