Nigel Denis Oram (25 December 1919 – 15 September 2003),[1] [2] was a British born public servant, academic, ethnologist and anthropologist specialising in the Pacific and New Guinea[3] and was an acknowledged specialist in Papuan oral history.

[6] Oram was born at Maida Vale, London, Middlesex, England, and lived in Buckinghamshire, Sydenham, and North Yorkshire.

He commanded a reconnaissance unit of mainly Africans and Gurkhas with devocalised (non-braying) mules, then led a convoy of troops through middle India training for an foray into Malaya.

[2] He met Joan Airey Bonsey, a sister in Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps en route to Africa during the war, and again in India and in 1944.

[7] Oram's research assisted in developing understanding of the issues which would face New Guinea as a sovereign state when it ultimately obtained its independence from Australia.

[2] Oram remained in Canberra in his retirement, continuing to publish articles until shortly before his death at age 84 on 15 September 2003 at the Amity Nursing Home, Aranda, Australian Capital Territory.