Sir Walter Randolph Carpenter (1877–1954) was an Australian-Canadian pearl hunting, trader, merchant, ship owner, airline industry leader and philanthropist of American ancestry active in the western Pacific from the 1890s through the 1940s.

[1][2] When World War I erupted, he capitalized on the importance of copra for making munitions and as a food, and took enormous risks with resulting large profits which enabled his company to expand into New Guinea when the Australian government expropriated German property.

[3][4][5] In New Guinea, Carpenter took advantage of the development of the Morobe gold fields to acquire hotels in Wau and Bulolo, set up electrical power plants and cold storage facilities, and operated a fleet of inter-island steamers and a desiccated-coconut factory.

[1] At the outbreak of World War II Carpenter's ships and aircraft were commandeered by Australian and British forces, so in 1940 he travelled to the United States and purchased two freighters which he operated in the Pacific free of European control.

John Bolton Carpenter was a merchant, whaler and sea captain who emigrated from New Haven, Connecticut, to Singapore as a result of American Civil War restrictions on his shipping business; Emma was a native of England.