MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' next Director of Central Services delighted with the challenge of a new life

“I've been told Amazon deliveries take eight weeks, but on the other hand I'll be able to look out of my window and see dolphins and whales swimming around”

Matt Bassford who has been named by the Falkland Islands the new Director of Central Services, is swapping bustling Cambridge for a new life in the South Atlantic, a British Overseas Territory where there are about 170 sheep for every human being resident, according to Cambridge News.

It will be a major lifestyle change for the former Ministry of Defense and Cabinet Office man, who is moving to the Falklands with his wife Colette and two children Maya, 12, and Anna, 10, “a family adventure”.

Bassford, 41, is currently heading up defense and security research at Cambridge-based RAND Europe, in which he has overseen studies into the role of the internet in radicalization and the threat of terrorist attacks on oil tankers, but will be director of central services for the Falklands Government comes January.

The civilian role puts him in charge of everything from the airport and developing infrastructure for oil and gas drilling to the local leisure centre.

“I've been told Amazon deliveries take eight weeks, but on the other hand I'll be able to look out of my window and see dolphins and whales swimming around. It's going to be a big lifestyle change but it's something we're very excited about.”

Bassford said he is not worried about the reclamation noises that have periodically been made by politicians in Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982.

“I think it's just rhetoric and I think in almost every other aspect of life things are a lot safer there than in the UK,” he said.

“People do not lock their houses and they leave their keys in their car. There is some saber-rattling in Argentina, but that's more to do with their internal politics than anything else.”

Matt and his family, who have lived in the Cambridge area for seven years and hope to return one day, say they have received mixed responses when they have told people where they are off to.

He said: “Three quarters of our friends are absolutely delighted for us and find it very exciting and the rest do not quite understand why we would want to up sticks and go to the other side of the world.

”I think it will be interesting to see if anyone comes out to see us – and of course the penguins.”

Following a brief familiarization visit in November 2014, Matt will formally take up his position in January 2015, accompanied by his family.