God Bless you and keep you,

Fr Keith & Ginny.

NOW WE ARE 30..............

"In this bar in March 1971, it was agreed that an Ascension Island Newspaper should be started. It was also said "Don't bother, because it will never continue when you leave".

So reads the small plaque in the corner of the bar of the old Exiles Club, which was placed there on the occasion of the 1000th issue back in 1990.

The founding editor was island dentist Mr. Tom Harman-Smith, (pictured right.)

On the occasion of the 500th issue back in December 1980, he wrote to The Islander, and said; "As Founder Editor I shall always remember that a major reason given to me for NOT starting it was that 'no-one will continue after you have gone'. For the 1000th edition, I shall fly out and distribute it personally."

He was reminded of this promise 10 years later by editor Molly Rideout, and true to his word, arrived on the island to deliver the 1000th issue to the shops!

BEFORE THE ISLANDER - A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS ON ASCENSION ISLAND.....with thanks to Sue Edgar

The first newspaper published on Ascension Island was a single sheet called 'The 877 News". This appeared on the 21st of August 1942 and was described by the British Government Representative as; "A sheet of world news, articles and nonsense columns." This was edited by US Army Chaplain W.E.Capricorn, assisted by Mr M.M.Baker of the Red Cross. Published daily for the US troops, over 4000 copies were printed. The name was taken from the Army Post Office number for Ascension, still on the war-time secret list. The name obviously lacked a certain "pizzaz" on the newspaper stands, and a competition was launched to think of a better one. The prizes of a flash-light and 3 gallons of fresh water for a bath were offered to the winner. The paper was expanded to a double-sided sheet named 'The Wideawake News', but this was changed to 'The Daily News' on the insistence of the US censorship authorities. A few months later the paper was again renamed as 'Task', and had grown to some 8 pages with cartoons and news reports, both about island life and the wide world outside. By March 1944 it required the skill of 75 servicemen to produce each weekly issue.

After the war, the sound of pounding typewriters and the scratching of pens ceased. There were several attempts to produce a newspaper when the island was again invaded in the 1960s. Appearing at irregular intervals, The Klinka Times was a fairly scurrilous rag full of innuendoes, which only made sense to those with an ear for scandal. This said, it prepared the ground for the next paper.

The Islander was the brainchild of the dentist, Tom Harman-Smith. The first issue of The Islander appeared on Ascension on the 30th of April 1971. It was produced using the Cable & Wireless facilities by kind permission of the General Manager, Basil Leighton. The project nearly sank without trace when the Cable & Wireless Head Office mandarins had cold feet about allowing people to print a newspaper on their equipment, which might be used to criticise The Administrator, or (perish the thought) Cable & Wireless. The second issue was postponed until these difficulties were overcome.

On the occasion of the publication of the 1000th issue of The Islander on the 2nd of November 1990, the Administrator of the day, His Honour J.J. Beale wrote;

"Why has The Islander survived? Because it fulfils a need. What is that? To be a shop window where people can seek public support for ideas and events, where they can advertise their chattels and their opinions, and where our own local news can be circulated and recorded in a lapidary style.......Communications are important. World news is brought to us by the BBC - newspapers are imported for us by AIS - gossip spreads fast by word of mouth, feeding on itself, often to the discomfiture of those concerned - but The Islander, a community newspaper produced by the voluntary efforts of so many over so many years, fills what would otherwise be a gap and has tried to serve our local needs from the days of it's origins.

HERE'S TO THE NEXT THOUSAND ISSUES!"

IN THE BEGINNING In issue no. 45 of 1972, Mary Stebbings recalled the night it all started.

"I think the island needs a newspaper", said Tom, and being well fed-up and agreeably drunk, I offered to assist with any typing. One week later, on Wednesday 3rd of March, a group of seven met at Tom's house - John Clouse, then Head of Bendix, Sue Mortimer, Frank Byford, Tom's wife Carol, Mary McMahon and myself.

Almost the first thing we decided on was the name of the paper - in fact I think that was the only decision of the evening, but somehow it made it seem more real. I had also risen from typist to sub-editor, though with little idea of what this actually entailed. That first evening we discussed possibly office sites, (could we take over the Administrator's Board Room?), the sort of equipment we would need and how to get it (write to the Daily Mirror for a second-hand printing press?), and the frequency of publication, weekly, fortnightly or monthly? (Tom wanted a weekly, the rest of us inclined to less frequent issues.) We all left with a list of questions, the answers to be found by the next meeting - how much equipment would cost; who else could be conned into joining us; where the office could be; what sort of equipment existed on the island, and so on.

By the next meeting, at the end of the month, an impressive looking list of Editors was produced for News, Sport, Features, Children's Page, etc. and I found myself further promoted to Assistant Features Editor. Some sort of pattern was beginning to emerge, and by the next meeting we had decided that the obvious course was to produce a trial issue, for which Cable and Wireless had kindly agreed to lend equipment and paper, and to see the reaction from the island.

That's history now, and after an intensive fund-raising campaign which included a fish-fry at PanAm Beach, a tremendous record marathon broadcast from Volcano Radio, and many individual donations (both private and from organisations), issue no. 2 appeared on Friday, 2nd July, produced in an office kindly provided by the Base Authorities. Not a week had been missed since then, and The Islander is now established as part of the life on Ascension."

"THAT LETTER"

The Islander has always been (and still is) happy to receive and print letters. The identity of the author can even be withheld, provided that the name and address is supplied to the editor. One such letter was received in 1975, which caused a huge reaction, and too many replies to print. In fact, its publication almost led to the closure of the paper. We won't reprint the letter here - it caused enough trouble last time; if you want to see a copy, it forms part of the Islander commemorative display in the Georgetown Gallery, which opens on Saturday the 5th of May. You can judge its contents by the reaction of the then-Administrator H.H. Geoffrey Guy, who wrote a letter to the paper the following week;

"There has been widespread concern and indignation amongst both the British and American communities on Ascension over the anonymous letter published in the last issue of The Islander. No-one who attempts to create disharmony between the American, British or St. Helenian communities on Ascension is a welcome member of any community here and I am to advise that the publication of this anonymous letter may lead to the prosecution of both the publisher and the author under the Race Relations Act....... The Islander performs a most valuable service to the entire community, on whose support it depends and which I do very much hope it will do nothing to forfeit."

Yours faithfully,
G.C. Guy, Administrator.

Tug: Men Missing Mystery.

Back in October 1974, Ascension was involved in a rescue operation.
"On Saturday, news came through that an ocean going tug - 'El Cabalo Grande' - was in trouble somewhere close to the island. It was reported that two of the tug's crew, the Captain and the First Mate, had gone missing, presumably lost overboard. The remaining crew members were unable to navigate the boat and requested assistance to help them get to Ascension.

The crew of the tug gave their position as being south west of the island. This proved to be incorrect as there had been no sun or star 'fixes' taken for three days due to cloud cover." Accordingly the aircraft that was searching, for the boat, was looking in the wrong place. It took 3 days to locate the vessel and talk them in to Ascension.

This incident was a major scoop for The Islander, and was later investigated by the F.B.I. who had suspicions about the assertions of the crew that the Captain and the First Mate were simply "washed overboard."

"Wanted - One Editor, Dead (drunk) or alive"

So the headline rang out in August 1974. One of the recurring themes of The Islander is the frantic search for new editors each time someone leaves the island. Below we print the names of all of the editors against the year when they first answered the call! As ever, we are still looking for editors - if interested in joining the team, then phone Ian Andrews on 6301 (h) or 4622 (w).

Thirty Glorious Years Happy birthday to The Islander newspaper. Thirty years old this week and still going strong.

However we will still need volunteers to fill the gaps that our transient population produces. A quick glance at the list of editors in the article shows how many we can go through.

Indeed out of the current five teams, (myself, Penny Peters and Adrian Fowler, Tony Jenkins and Philip Stevens, Adam and Julia Henshaw, and yet to edit solo Mel Flanagan and Diane King), three teams will no longer be doing the Islander after the summer (if not sooner in some cases).

So please if you fancy having a go get in touch and we will give you a free, no obligation, try before you buy go at editing the paper.

I think that's all for now.

Ian Andrews