MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands children receive commemorative coins
Governor, Mr Alan Huckle distributed commemorative coins to children in the Community School From Tuesday, with the arrival in the Falkland Islands of the Earl of Wessex and other VIP guests of the local government, a full programme of events will begin to commemorate the liberation of the Islands from Argentine occupation twenty-five years ago.
Present in the Islands are teams from the BBC, the British Independent Television News, the British Forces Broadcasting Service and Reuters, with more media visitors expected, including a television team from the Czech Republic. Already during the last few days and weeks significant anniversaries of events occurring during the seventy-four days of Argentine occupation have been commemorated at some of the many memorials to those British servicemen who lost their lives, which are scattered throughout the Falklands archipelago. These ceremonies, usually taking the form of a short interdenominational religious service, have kept the Islands' four ministers of religion very busy and are usually attended also by the Islands' Governor and the Commander of British Forces, South Atlantic Islands along with local residents, veterans of the conflict and visiting family members of the fallen. It must be difficult for those involved to escape the cumulative weight of the grief, which inevitably accompanies such occasions and therefore one imagines it must have been a relief for the Islands' Governor, Mr Alan Huckle, to take part in a commemorative event of a very different kind at the Community School in Stanley on Monday. With the aid of Mrs Huckle and the Falkland Islands Financial Secretary, Mr.Derek Howatt, the Governor, distributed specially minted commemorative coins to children from the two schools in Stanley, the Islands' capital. Despite the formality of his appearance in full uniform, complete with plumed helmet, the Governor seemed to find no problem in coming literally down to the level of the smallest of the 339 children gathered in the Community School's gymnasium, as he kneeled to present their coins. On 21st June, Mr.Huckle plans to travel to the West Falklands to present commemorative coins to the children that live there. The coins, which have a face value of fifty pence and the same heptagonal shape as the regular 50p coin, bear a profile of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse side and on the other side a depiction of a British soldier marching across the Falklands landscape. Ultimately all the children currently on the Islands and those following sixth form studies in Britain will receive the cupro nickel coin - five hundred and seventy six in all - which with a special presentation pack, will go on sale at the Falkland Islands Government Philatelic Bureau, from Wednesday, priced at £5. Before the presentation, the Financial Secretary told the children that they should keep the coins as a reminder of what he described as "the most amazing feat of endurance and courage".John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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