Leigh Vial

Leigh Grant Vial (28 February 1909 – 30 April 1943) was an Australian patrol officer and coastwatcher in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War. While a patrol officer he became the first white person to climb Mount Wilhelm, the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea. Vial was killed in a plane crash in 1943, the year after he had been awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross for his "extraordinary heroism" in New Guinea. He is buried in Lae War Cemetery.