Horace Lionel Richard Niall

Sir Horace Lionel Richard Niall (4 October 1904 – 1 May 1994) was an Australian military officer and government official who served in Papua New Guinea. He was the first Speaker of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, serving from 1964 to 1968. Biography Niall was born on 4 October 1904 in Coolah, New South Wales. He attended Mudgee High School and later the University of Sydney. He later joined the Australian military with the rank of cadet patrol officer, and in May 1927, he arrived in Rabaul, Territory of Papua, as a member of the Australian administration of the territory. He was promoted to the rank of patrol officer in 1930, the same year he married. He was later moved from Rabaul to Talasea, where he continued patrolling. He mainly worked in the Morobe Province from 1940, except for a period from 1946 to 1949, when he worked in East Sepik Province.

In 1964, Niall was elected unopposed to the new House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. Niall was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1943 and a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958. He was married and had a daughter, and died on 1 May 1994, at the age of 89.