St Helena's great History and Heritage (2023)

A fleet commanded by Captain John Dutton (first Governor, 1659-1661) in theMarmadukearrived at St Helena in 1659, with the first permanent settlers and a few slaves they were instructed to bring from the Cape Verde Islands. The English East India Company (E.I.C.) was given a Royal Charter which allowed the company the sole right to fortify and colonise the island “in such legal and reasonable manner as the said Governor and Company should see fit.”The Dutch attempted to regain the island in 1673, but were defeated by the timely arrival of Captain Richard Munden on the scene, and the island has remained British.

More settlers and slaves arrived over the intervening years until 1792, when the slaves outnumbered the civilian population, and it was ordered that no more slaves were to be brought to the island. The community until then consisted of British settlers, soldiers of the EIC and slaves, mainly from Africa, India, and Madagascar.

In 1815 the British Government selected St Helena as the place of detention of Napoleon I of France. He was brought to the island in October 1815 and lodged at Longwood, where he died in May 1821. During this period the island was strongly garrisoned by regular British regimental troops, local St Helena regiment troops, and naval shipping.

The agreement was reached that St Helena would remain in the East India Company’s possession, although the British Government would appoint its own governor for the duration of the captivity, and meet additional costs arising from guarding Napoleon.The EIC gave the island a schooner in 1815, to carry passengers and stores. This was the first “St Helena”. Since pirates attacked it in 1830, there was no dedicated ship until 1978. The Union Castle Line, which had served the island for many years and withdrew its service in 1977. The island then had to find its own supply/passenger ship, the “RMS”, the third ship to be given the name “St Helena”. This “RMS St Helena” served the island well until 1990. It was requisitioned in 1982 by the MOD to help in support of the Falklands Conflict.A new purpose-built ship, the 4^th “RMS St Helena”, launched by Prince Andrew in 1989 in Aberdeen, replaced it. The RMS was decommissioned in February 2018.

In 1890 Dinuzulu and his two uncles were exiled by the British Government to St Helena so that they should not become a focus of further unrest in Zululand and to allow them more personal freedom than would have been possible in South Africa. On 25 February 1890 The exiles arrive in Jamestown from South Africa. The island’s newspaper reports that Dinuzulu was adjudged a smart – looking young fellow wearing gaiters and carrying a riding whip’.

St Helena was the first overseas destination for the prisoners from the Boer War.The first group of prisoners arrived on the island on board theMILWAUKEE on April 14^th1900.General Cronje was one of them, accompanied by his wife. They were allowed to live in a house, Kent Cottage at New Ground, with a guard. The first camp for the prisoners was set up on Deadwood Plain, for the Transvaalers and later as more and more arrived, another camp was set up at Broadbottom for those from the Orange Free State. A total of 5,865 prisoners were reportedly brought in and stationed at prison camps on Deadwood Plain and Broad Bottom. They were guarded by the English Gloucester regiment.In this period it was said that the Islanders prospered from the services required. Some prisoners during their parole, contributed to the construction of Island infrastructure.180 Prisoners died whilst in captivity and their graves can be observed at the Boer Cemetery in Knollcombs.

Up until the Falklands War, after which St Helenians were employed there, the island was extremely poor with men going off to Ascension Island (since 1922) and the UK (including the exodus of 100 men in 1949) to find work, the only industry on the island since 1907 being the export of flax. This was poorly paid work and eventually, this industry closed around 1966 with nothing to replace it. Only around this date did the education system begin to offer a limited number of GCE subjects to a few people, until in 1988 when the Prince Andrew Community High Schoolwas opened, offering equal opportunity to all island children to gain subjects to “A” level to enable a small annual number of them (limited by funding) to take advantage of tertiary education in UK. Many St Helenians have achieved excellent qualifications since then. The British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified St Helena and the other Crown Colonies as British Dependent Territories. The Islanders lost their status as citizens of the United Kingdom (as defined in the British Nationality Act 1948) and were stripped of their right of abode in Britain. After a lot of invaluable effort by M.P.’s and friends in UK, by the Citizenship Commission on the island, by islanders themselves and lawyers in Canada, British citizenship was regained on the 500^thAnniversary of the discovery, in 2002.

You can also visit theMuseum of St Helenato learn more about our History and Heritage exploreSt Helena Island Info
or the St Helena Napoleonic Heritage Ltdhttp://www.napoleonsthelena.com/