An Ungentlemanly Act

 

That's the thing about reading: you not only discover a lot about other people and places, you also discover a lot about yourself. What I discovered about myself is that once I have learned about something, I want to learn more and more about it, which is what I did after I had learnt about the Falkland Islands in "The Sun Never Sets : Travels to the remaining outposts of the British Empire" (SIGN UP, LOG IN, then BORROW, and go straight to page 248).

YouTube postings about the Falkland Islands are all about the war in 1982 (which I had totally missed as at the time I had just started a new and demanding job in the world's largest sandbox, Saudi Arabia). Besides countless documentaries, they even made a dramatisation about it:

Based on actual accounts, this film portrays the days and hours before and during the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina, which eventually lead to the Falklands War. As the Argentine forces land on the main island and make their way towards Government House, the British Royal Marines batten down the hatches and prepare to defend Governer Rex Hunt, his family and their fellow islanders from the invaders.

 

 

Charles Darwin went to the Falklands aboard the "Beagle" in 1833, the same year that the Union Jack was first raised by a visiting vessel. He knew that the existing Argentine garrison had been ordered to leave, and was scornfully dismissive of the Admiralty's action. He delivered a judgement as haunting as it was economical: "Here we, dog in manger fashion, seize an island and leave to protect it a Union Jack." Ten years later the islands were formally colonised. According to the 2016 Census, the islands have a population of 3,398, who remained British at the cost of 258 men, 6 ships (10 others suffered varying degrees of battle damage), 34 aircraft, and £2.778 billion (£9.255 billion in 2018-money).

 

 

After the "war", arguments were advanced about the need for keeping the Cape Horn passage in safe hands, for the day when Panama fell to the other side. Most people saw it as pointless preservation of Imperial pride by an Empire who had claimed that the sun would never set on it (though the original remark - 'the sun never sets on my dominions' - was written for Phillip II of Spain, and had nothing to do with Britain at all).

Until it does, I may tune in to the British Falklands Broadcasting Services or open up the "Penguin News" to hear and read about what one not-so-happy governor called 'a remote settlement at the fag end of the world'.

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Additional viewing:
The Falklands Play
The Falklands War
Falkland Islands Broadcasting Station. Live broadcast of invasion
Tumbledown