MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Imaginative Falklands biography project Lives marching through five centuries
A remarkably ambitious project to create a comprehensive Dictionary of Falklands Biography (DFB), telling the life story of everyone of significance or interest connected with the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, has been officially launched by former Falkland Islands Governor, David Tatham.
He has appealed to anyone who can contribute ideas or information to contact him.
The biographies are planned to start with the discovery of the Falklands in 1592 and continue up to 1981 just before the Argentine invasion, which radically changed the course of the islands' history. For this reason, the post-war period from 1982 is not covered in this first phase, but almost certainly will be later in a second volume.
So far, the list stretches to more than 400 names of people going back five centuries, beginning with the navigators and adventurers who first sighted, discovered, landed on and settled in the Falkland Islands. The first names in the list are two British explorers, Sir Richard Hawkins and Captain John Davis, and the Dutch privateer Seebald de Weert.
The dictionary will focus on the history and development of the Islands in an imaginative way, as seen through the impact of individual lives. Essential factual information such as names, places and dates, will be enlivened by assessment and evaluation of the person's character and how they coped with challenges and problems, and what their contemporaries thought of them.
Encompassing all nationalities from every age Already on the list is a remarkable diversity of personalities who have been involved one way or another, visiting or influencing, or changing perceptions of, the Falklands. David Tatham says :"We aim to discover new information and collect existing material to provide a biographical companion to those interested in the history and society of these islands and to encourage genealogical studies.
"We shall include explorers like Shackleton and James Clark Ross, naval commanders like Doveton Sturdee and Graf von Spee (rival commanders in the 1914 Battle of the Falkland), scientists like Joseph Dalton Hooker and various officials. But our aim is to include anyone whose life was of interest, not just the prominent. ? We welcome suggestions for inclusion. Our prime need is for material which is full and interesting".
Other examples are the famous naturalist, Charles Darwin, who visited the Falklands, the explorer, Captain James Cook, and the diarist, Samuel Johnson, who famously described them in 1771 as "?.thrown aside from human use, stormy in winter, barren in summer, an island which not even the southern savages have dignified with habitation". How wrong he turned out to be! There are many naval officers, diplomats, Governors, and early settlers.
About twenty people who are still alive have been invited to write their own life stories. All nationalities will be included ? Americans, Argentines, British, French, Dutch, German, Irish, Norwegians, Spanish, Swedes and Uruguayans. It is hoped to include pictures and other illustrations as they become available. Such an exhaustive study will take several years, but it is hoped a definitive framework will be established on the web site by mid 2003, with publication by 2007.
Website directions; Editorial Boards A valuable tool and vehicle basic to the success of the project is the web site, which already carries details of what is intended, gives an idea of the enormous scholarship which the initiative involves, and seeks help from anyone who feels they can contribute. The website address is: www.d-falklands-b.org
The whole project is supervised by several editorial boards: one in Britain, another to be formed in the Falkland Islands, and a separate board for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The main editorial board consists of David Tatham, Malcolm Barton, Graham Bound, Jim McAdam, Frank Mitchell, Ann Savours Shirley, and Ronnie Spafford.
They will choose whom they judge to be the best qualified authors for each biography. No one will be paid. It is a voluntary, combined effort, involving much individual research, for which the sources have to be identified. The Falkland Islands Government has granted £600 to set up the web-site.
Guidance on content, style and format is outlined on the website, together with a form for suggestions. There is also a draft example, featuring Murrell Robinson (1820-1900), a surveyor and engineer, who arrived in the Falklands in 1842, as a senior aide to Governor Richard Clement Moody, until they fell out and Robinson returned to London.
The Dictionary of Falklands Biography is just one of a number of initiatives originated by David Tatham, a retired diplomat who served in a variety of posts overseas, including Governor of the Falkland Islands. He was the principal founder of the Shackleton Scholarship Fund which awards bursaries in memory of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his son, Lord Shackleton, and is a founder member of the South Georgia Association educational charity promoting study of that island.
Further information on the biographical dictionary is available from: David Tatham, Wisteria Cottage, South Parade, Ledbury, Hereford, HR8 2HA Telephone and fax: 01531 634 085 E-mail: editorfb@onetel.com
Harold Briley, (MP) London
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