Taufa'ahau Tupou IV (1918–2006)

King of Tonga 1965–2006. On succeeding to the throne after his mother's death, he assumed the designation King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and shared power with his brother, Prince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake (1922–1999), who served until 1991 as prime minister and agriculture minister. King Taufa'ahau negotiated the country's independence within the British Commonwealth in 1970, but remained the strongest supporter of the Western powers in the Pacific region.

The eldest son of Queen Salote Tupou III, he was the first Tongan monarch to receive a Western education and the first Tongan to secure a university degree, studying arts and law at Newington College and Sydney University. A keen mathematician and Wesleyan lay preacher, he served successively as minister for education in 1943 and health 1944–49, before becoming prime minister (and foreign affairs and agriculture minister) under his mother in 1949. A strong supporter of European involvement in the region, his government did not, unlike neighbouring states, condemn France for resuming nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific in 1995. He promoted improvements in education and social services in Tonga, establishing the University of the South Pacific in Suva in 1969, but resisted growing calls to democratize what remains an absolutist political system. He was succeeded by his son, George Tupou V.