MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: website of the Islands’ Dictionary of Biographies 2025 success

Felipe Arana, Argentine signatory of the Convention of Peace, 1850, that led to Argentine suspension of challenge campaign of British ownership of Falkland Islands

2025 saw an increase in the number of ‘hits’ on the website of the Dictionary of Falklands Biography, DBF. The total number of hits was 27,025, a substantial increase on the previous year’s figure of 22,257.

People in 157 countries accessed the website and a total of 32,508 pages were opened. The largest number of viewers came from the UK – 7,810 - and 795 came from the Falkland Islands. From Argentina there were 846 hits and, unusually, 2,605 from China. Those who visited the website downloaded 3,717 items.

The website format permits continuous expansion and eight new names were added this year. Among them are Henry Southern (1799 - 1853) (contributed by Dr Graham Pascoe) and Felipe Arana (1786 - 1865) (by Peter Pepper).

These were the two signatories of the Convention of Peace of 1850 which declared that all outstanding issues between the British and Argentine governments were resolved and which led to the suspension of the Argentine campaign to challenge British ownership of the Islands.

The number of images now totals 2119, a striking increase on the 365 pictures included in the original printed volume. The editor, David Tatham expressed his thanks and those of all readers of the DFB to research officer Dr Stephen Palmer and to Dr Tom MacAdam who manages the site.