Miscellaneous


On 15 March 1951 Pierce-Butler was appointed magistrate at South Georgia, taking up residence at King Edward Point. At this time, whaling was still in full swing on the Island with three land stations, Grytviken, Husvik and Leith all in operation. Pierce-Butler started to take an interest in the whaling business, particularly in whale catching, processing and production. His position in government and his interest in the industry brought him into contact with Alfredo Ryan, a Gibraltar-born Argentine businessman who owned the Compañia Argentina de Pesca, the proprietors of Grytviken. Ryan wished to improve relations between his company and government and Pierce-Butler, who had by this time become disenchanted with the Colonial Service, was persuaded in early 1954 to join Ryan's whaling business. He had noted, during his period at South Georgia, that Ryan's company Pesca was the poorest producer on the island and he set forth to address their problems. In the three years which followed, Pierce-Butler became manager - the first ever British manager of the company - and, to the chagrin of his predominantly Norwegian workforce, transformed its production and output by a comprehensive modernisation programme both at the land station and at sea. Financed by Ryan, antiquated whaling plant at Grytviken was replaced and a completely new fleet of whale catchers were built to hunt the decreasing number of whales which were now largely found some distance from the island. By 1957/58 Grytviken had overtaken its rivals in both the number of whales caught and quantity and quality of whale oil and meal production; good profits were returned. Pierce-Butler also laid the foundations for the transfer of Ryan's wholly owned whaling business from the Argentine to the British flag by the creation of a new company, Albion Star (South Georgia) Limited with its registered office at South Georgia and subsidiaries in Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.


In 1958, however, Pierce-Butler suddenly and mysteriously left Ryan's employ. There was rumour that Ryan, against Butler's wishes, had withheld further investment, because he had become nervous about the prospect of a total collapse in the whale population and a fall in the price of whale oil and other whale products. Pierce-Butler returned to England and became a 'whaling consultant'. He found work in South Africa for the Hector Whaling Company which ran a whaling station at Saldanha Bay, about 60 miles north from Cape Town. He saw this as a similar challenge to Pesca, but the numbers of whales were decreasing and the station eventually closed in the mid-1960s. Butler then became involved in a number of South African businesses. As well as managing ships for a Cape Town based sea diamond mining company, he became the General Manager for Andrew M. Behr & Co (Proprietary) Ltd, an arm of the Sierra Fishing Agency which operated, with Norwegian support, the infamous pirate whaling ship Sierra and a number of whale catchers registered under the dubious company name of Scandinavian Dry Cleaners. The Sierra Agency (and her predecessor the Run Fishing Agency) supplied lucrative quantities of frozen whale meat to the Japanese, obtained by catching whales and processing whale meat on the high seas in defiance of controls imposed by the International Whaling Commission. However, this business came to an abrupt end in 1979 when the Angolan civil war disrupted trans-shipments and conservationists rammed the Sierra. Eventually, after extensive repairs, the ship was sabotaged while she was in a Portuguese port preparing to sail. Butler then became the manager of a petrol station at Hout Bay, near Cape Town.


Pierce-Butler was married twice. Little is known of his first marriage other than that he declared it on his application for the SECFIDS post in April 1948. The marriage was thereafter dissolved. His second marriage, in the Register Office of the City of Westminster on 14 August 1954, was to his previously widowed housekeeper on South Georgia, Janet Cooper Horne neé Gilmour, twelve years his senior. She was the mother-in-law of Thomas Adair Carey, the wireless operator at King Edward Point from 1951-54. Mrs Horne had first arrived on the island to support Carey, his wife (who had become ill) and child, but when the Crown Agents failed to fill the post of chief steward she was appointed temporary stewardess on Pierce-Butler's recommendation 'to act as his housekeeper, supervise catering for single officers and be in charge of the provision and clothing store'. In December 1952 he reported her as 'entirely satisfactory' and she was confirmed in the post. When Pierce-Butler moved to Pesca in 1954 she resided with him at Grytviken between 1955 and 1958. They had no children. Pierce-Butler died in South Africa in 1995.


An appraisal by Clifford in 1953 makes a generous epitaph: 'Butler has rendered some sterling service while in these parts ... in this last appointment, which entails more 'fieldwork' and personal contacts he has done very well and will be greatly missed by the whaling community... He ... can inspire confidence, respect and affection'. Although Clifford noted ' he does not shine in any form of office work,' he went on to commend him as, ’loyal, energetic, zealous, and enthusiastic to a fault, most practical and a proved leader of men'. (The Dictionary of Falklands Biography (Including South Georgia) From Discovery Up to 1981, edited by D. Tatham, refers)


1 of 9 Silver Medals awarded for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey 1946-47. Sold with photographic images of the recipient.


1504


Memorial Plaque (3) (Arthur Lamb; Percy William Merrison; Percy Marlow Shaw) second and third in card envelopes of issue, good very fine (3)


£100-£140


Arthur Lamb, a native of Egremont, Cheshire, served during the Great War as an Able Seaman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was killed in action on 5 May 1917, when the S.S. Harmatten, on a voyage from Avonmouth with a cargo of government stores, was sunk by a mine from the German submarine UC-37 in the Mediterranean, 7 miles north from Ras Rosa, Algeria, with the loss of her entire crew of 36. Lamb is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.


Percy William Merrison, a native of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, attested for the Norfolk Regiment at East Dereham, Norfolk, and served with the 1st/5th Battalion during the Great War in Palestine. He died on 19 April 1917, and having no known grave is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.


Percy Marlow Shaw was born in Ludworth, Derbyshire, and attested for the Devonshire Regiment at Hyde, Derbyshire. He served with the 8th Battalion during the Great War in Italy, and was killed in action on 27 October 1918. He is buried in Tezze British Cemetery, Italy.


Sold with War Office letter to the recipient’s widow, addressed to ‘Mrs. E. A. Shaw, 50 Stanley Road, Hyde, Chester’.


1505


Memorial Plaque (Harry George Hiscock) traces of verdigris to obverse, and with the remnants of three drawing pins soldered to reverse for mounting purposes, cleaned, therefore nearly very fine


£30-£40


Harry George Hiscock was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, and attested for the Royal Engineers at Chatham, Kent. He served with the 153rd Field Company during the Great War on the Western Front from 19 November 1915, and died of wounds on 20 August 1917. He is buried in Locre Hospice Cemetery, Belgium.


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