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over the last 200 years, commenting “Those of us who live on Ascension today must pay tribute to all our military forebears who worked in extreme and inhospitable conditions from 1815 onwards to establish a fresh water supply, sanitation, military fortifications, housing and healthcare in this isolated and remote environment”. The Bicentenary celebrations were planned by a team of representatives from the Ascension Island Government, the MOD and USAF, with a large number of volunteers from the community. Events over the Bicentenary weekend included entertainment by the visiting Band of the Royal Marines, a flag- raising ceremony to re-create the original raising of the Union flag by the Navy in 1815 and the opening of a new Bicentenary Park in the ‘capital’, Georgetown, as well as local favourites such as sporting competitions and a History of Ascension exhibition by children at the Island school. Marc Holland, Administrator of Ascension paid tribute to the way in which representatives from across the community had collaborated to make the Bicentenary a success. He drew special attention to the commitment of the St Helenians on Ascension, some of whom have lived and worked on Ascension for many decades, as well as to the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.
The Commander of the British Forces South Atlantic Islands (CBFSAI), Commodore Darren Bone flew up from the Falklands for the weekend to attend the celebrations as the guest of honour. He officially opened the new Bicentenary Park, unveiling a monument to mark the 200 years of British settlement. It is intended that the Park will provide a place for residents and visitors to sit and rest in the shade, whilst enjoying the views out towards the tropical blue ocean and inland to the barren, yet beautiful, volcanic landscape that is so unique to this island. The Bicentenary Park has not yet reached its final form (the trees and plants in the park still have some growing to do!) but the work that has been achieved in just six months, all thanks to volunteers, demonstrates the enthusiasm and commitment of the local community to establish a space for future generations to enjoy.
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Commodore Bone also found time to plant a Cape yew tree under the guidance of Green Mountain National Park Warden, Stedson Stroud, in the newly replanted and renamed Queen Elizabeth II Garden near its peak. The Garden was the site of a vegetable garden in the last century when the British established a farm on Green Mountain to provide fresh vegetables to the garrison population. The farm was closed several decades ago and the MOD now imports the food it needs to sustain its employees on the twice- weekly airbridge from the UK, and the monthly MOD resupply ship.
Today Ascension Island is well placed to look to the future with optimism, confident of the role that it will continue to play in the region. Wing Commander Mark Taylor summed up Ascension’s significance: “Ascension Island is a key military logistics hub, supporting the Falkland Islands but, more widely, it has provided key support to both aircraft and personnel fighting Ebola in West Africa and is a valued resupply point for a number of Royal Naval vessels”. As the Bicentenary year draws to a close, Ascension Island and its temporary inhabitants turn their thoughts to the next 200 years and embrace all of the opportunities and challenges the future will bring.
Ascension Island Facts • Two thirds of the workforce on Ascension is made up of St Helenians
• There is no indigenous Ascension Island population
• Ascension is geographically one of the remotest islands in the world
• Ascension has been continuously inhabited since the British naval garrison was established in 1815
• Wideawake Airfield, constructed by the Americans in 1942, provided support to the 1982 Falklands Campaign, but it has proved its worth many times since then in a variety of other ways including support to a number of operations in West Africa
• Charles Darwin visited the island in 1836. Darwin and Joseph Hooker, then in the Naval Medical Service and later the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, devised a plan to introduce plant species to Green Mountain to create an artificial ‘cloud forest’
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that would increase rainfall to the island. The results were spectacular but controversial in that the introduced species out-competed the native plants.
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