News
The Coronation of King Charles III
On 6 May 2023, at the age of 73, King Charles III became the oldest monarch to be crowned in British history.Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948 and became heir apparent (next in line to the throne) at the age of 3 in 1952. He was the first heir to see his mother crowned as Sovereign and went on to become the longest serving Prince of Wales.
Penguins
Not many realise that the UK is one of the world’s top penguin nations. In some of the UK Overseas Territories in the Southern Hemisphere the shores are awash with waddling, tobogganing, and diving penguins – seven out of 18 penguin species are found in the Falklands, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean.
100th Anniversary of St Mary’s Church
On 8th July 2023 we celebrate 100 years since Tristan’s Anglican Church was dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin.In the beginning William Glass instituted daily prayer and Sunday public worship. Later services were held in Andrew Hagan’s house, as it was the largest in the settlement.
The world's remotest Post Office team welcomes you!
Tristan da Cunha did not have stamps until 1952, and the first ones were overprinted St Helena definitives. Essays priced in potatoes were however prepared in the 1940s as part of the petition for stamps. Before then, islanders had to rely on the good will of visiting ships. Tristan stamps have been popular with collectors ever since.
Visiting US Liberty Ships (1943)
During the Second World War, Tristan was commissioned by the Royal Navy as a top-secret naval station code-named Job 9 and later renamed HMS Atlantic Isle. Its role was to monitor U Boats (which were required to maintain radio contact) and shipping in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Vagrant Species Part 3
Tristan da Cunha lies in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, east of the mid-Atlantic ridge, 2,800km from the continental shores South Africa, and 3,360km from South America. It is the most remote island in the world with a resident human population, with St. Helena, the nearest island some 2,400km away. Vagrant species might seem to be a curiosity, but all of the native animals on Tristan arose from individuals that wandered far from their usual haunts.
The Legacy of Jacques Cousteau 1910 - 1997
Jacques Cousteau was a French naval officer, oceanographer, author and filmmaker.
In 1942-3, as a Naval Lieutenant, Cousteau and a French engineer Émile Gagnan invented the Aqua-Lung. Cousteau improved the Aqua-Lung design which led to the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (or SCUBA). This invention revolutionised underwater diving and was a major factor in the rapid development of recreational and professional scuba diving throughout the world. For Cousteau and Gagnan it allowed them to film and explore the underwater world more easily and to share their discoveries with the world.
Centenary of The Death of Sir Ernest Shackleton
The great polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) rose to fame in 1915 when his vessel, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and sank. Against all the odds, Shackleton succeeded in getting all his men back to safety, a tale of resolve and selfless leadership that is celebrated as one of the greatest stories of human endeavour from an era that has come to be known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Fittingly the Shackleton family's motto reads 'Fortitudine vincimus'. By endurance we conquer.