Betty Christian (23 November 1942 – 10 March 2026) was the Communications Officer and Island Secretary of the Pitcairn Islands. Appointed by the colonial Governor, the Island Secretary is an ex officio member of the Island Council, the legislative body of Britain's last remaining Pacific colony. She previously served as an elected member of the Council in 1990 and 1993.

Christian was a sixth-generation Pitcairner. She was educated at Pulau School on Pitcairn, and subsequently studied meteorology and radio telegraphy and telephony. She joined the island's communications staff in 1963, She also maintained that the islanders had always considered themselves British, and that the territory's status as a British dependency had never been challenged until then-Mayor Steve Christian, then a defendant facing rape charges (he was later convicted), raised the matter at a United Nations decolonization conference. (The charges against him then had not been made public).

She died in New Lynn, a suburb of West Auckland, on 10 March 2026, at the age of 83.

References

  • Website of Tom and Betty Christian
  • Bounty-Pitcairn Conference 2005 page (biographical information)