MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

London and Stanley launch book of tributes to Falklands

By Harold Briley OBE<br>London

Tributes have been paid to the Falkland Islands Government and its staff and Islanders for help in production of “The Dictionary of Falklands Biography” (including South Georgia), compiled and edited by former Falkland Islands Governor, Mr David Tatham.

The book has been formally launched Thursday at a Foreign and Commonwealth reception in London and another at Government House in the Falklands' capital Stanley.

At the London reception, Mr Tatham called it "a history of the people by the people for the people". He explained that 170 contributors freely wrote fascinating stories of the lives of 470 personalities who influenced the history of the region. A quarter of the contributors came from the Falkland Islands and many from various countries around the world, including Australia and Norway. His thanks to contributors included Commander Andrew David, who wrote up 39 subjects, mostly seafarers and the Reverend Jeremy Howat, who wrote up 22 people, mostly from the church. Mr Tatham said: "I have tried to draw together the various threads of the Islands' history and to give the present generation a sense of ownership through inheritance not just of their British, or Anglo-Celtic ancestors, but of all those who have contributed to the present day Falklands and South Georgia, whether they were from France like St Malo and Bougainville, from Spain like Malaspina, from South America, like Vernet, Lafone and their gauchos, or from Norway like C A Larsen and the whalers. "But the Islands' history is more than the sum of origins and influences. It is the story of a small country which has its own society and remarkable personality. A country which we believe has the right to live in freedom and the right to choose its own future. The DFB is a record of the struggles and achievements of the Islanders, and as such also a collection of very human stories. One reviewer has written that: "in fact some of the best characters in the Dictionaryare the Falkland Islanders themselves". That is a verdict I am very happy to go along with, for I hold the Islands and their people in deep affection". His largest benefactor had been the Falklands Government who had financed the running costs. He thanked the Falklands Councillors and their London Representative, Sukey Cameron, and her staff, and her sister, Jane Cameron, the Government Archivist, for her constant help and encouragement. Their brother, Donald Cameron, from Ireland, was at the reception. Mr Tatham explained that it was an obituary written by their father about a Falkland Islander which gave him the idea for the book. The generosity of Stanley Services Limited, whose managing director, Tom Swales, was at the reception, had enabled donation of copies of the biographical dictionary to be presented to contributors, and the firm had also freighted copies for sale in Stanley bookshops. He also received a grant from the Shackleton Scholarship Fund. He thanked his wife Valerie, and other members of his family and friends for practical help, the book's designers, and the Foreign Office Overseas Directorate headed by Colin Roberts, and Governor Alan Huckle in the Falklands for holding the receptions. Mr Tatham was told he himself deserved as much thanks as anyone for such a wonderful work. This tribute came from another of the most prolific contributors, Canon Stephen Palmer, Rector of Stanley Christ Church Cathedral from 1991 to 1996