MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands map with the names of British fallen during the 1982 Liberation of the Islands

The map of the Falklands with the identified geographic places that have been named to honor the British fallen during the 1982 conflict

The autonomous Government of the Falklands Islands, FIG, Gilbert House in an official release has given its support for the idea of a map to commemorate those who lost their lives during the Liberation of the Falkland Islands in 1982. The initiative started at the time of the 25th anniversary and became reality this year.

About 18 months ago when the 40th Anniversary Committee called for ideas to mark this anniversary, Rosie King agreed to take the map project forward, embarking on the huge task of consulting and engaging with Falkland landowners and FIG departments, assisted by a small team of enthusiastic assistants.

Rosie King together with Sally Poncet and Ken Passfield embarked in what they called the 40th Anniversary Place Names Remembrance Project,

Ken Passfield identified 256 un-named places features that were in need of a name, on land, sea and freshwater across the entirety of the Falkland. The team’s chief fact checker was Jay Morgan Hyrons, widow of Lance Corporal Gary Bingley (2 Para); Jay had written an on-line biography (Falklands35blog WordPress.com) for the 35th Anniversary and was an invaluable source of information.

Once the map features had been identified and described, Rosie /again liaised with landowners and FIG before informing as many Next of Kin as possible about the project. The process of designing the map was done by Patsy Robson of FIG PWD Design Office, who worked with the team to produce the final map in time for its unveiling on 11 November at the Town Hall during an event attended by visiting veterans and Next of Kin.

As Rosie said when writing to the Next of Kin, “We are extremely honored to be able to enclose the final map and spreadsheet to you now and we hope this tribute to your loved one will highlight that, whilst 40 years on, in the Falkland Islands each and every loss will forever be remembered.”

The map is now in the Museum and the digital version with the Roll of Honour and a brief description of each named feature will be available on the FIG website.

The names can also be found on Open Street Map, an on-line mapping resource.