Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | |
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Anthem: "God Save the Queen" | |
![]() Location of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (circled in red) | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Saint Helena colonial charter | 1657 |
Crown colony | 22 April 1834 [1] |
Ascension added | 12 September 1922 |
Tristan da Cunha added | 12 January 1938 |
Current constitution | 1 September 2009 |
Capital | Jamestown 15°56′S05°43′W / 15.933°S 5.717°W |
Largest city | Half Tree Hollow 15°56′0″S5°43′12″W / 15.93333°S 5.72000°W |
Official languages | English |
Government | Devolved self-governing dependencies under a constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Elizabeth II |
• Governor | Philip Rushbrook |
Steven Chandler | |
Sean Burns | |
• UK government minister | Tariq Ahmad |
Area | |
• Total | 394 km2 (152 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 6,765 ft (2,062 m) |
Population | |
• 2016 census | 5,633 [2] |
• Density | 13.4/km2 (34.7/sq mi) |
Currency | Saint Helena pound (£) (SHP) (Saint Helena and Ascension) Pound sterling (£) (GBP) |
Time zone | UTC (GMT) |
Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
Driving side | left |
Calling code | +290 (Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha) +247 (Ascension) +44 20 (Tristan da Cunha) |
UK postcode | STHL 1ZZ (Saint Helena) ASCN 1ZZ (Ascension) TDCU 1ZZ (Tristan da Cunha) |
ISO 3166 code | SH |
Internet TLD |
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha [3] are British Overseas Territories located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name was Saint Helena and Dependencies until 1 September 2009, when a new constitution came into force giving the three islands equal status as three territories, with a grouping under the Crown.
Of volcanic origin, the islands of Saint Helena, Ascension Island, and Tristan da Cunha were all formerly separate colonies of the English crown, though separately discovered by several Portuguese explorers between 1502 and 1504.
The Portuguese found Saint Helena uninhabited, with an abundance of trees and freshwater. They imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, and built a chapel and one or two houses. Though they formed no permanent settlement, the island became crucially important for the collection of food and as a rendezvous point for homebound voyages from Asia. English privateer Francis Drake very probably located the island on the final lap of his circumnavigation of the world (1577–1580). [4] Further visits by other English explorers followed, and, once St Helena's location was more widely known, English warships began to lie in wait in the area to attack Portuguese carracks on their way home from India. In developing their Far East trade, the Dutch also began to frequent the island and made a formal claim to it in 1633, but did not settle the isle and by 1651 largely abandoned it in favour of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope.
In 1657, the English East India Company was granted a charter to govern Saint Helena by Oliver Cromwell, [5] and the following year the Company decided to fortify and colonise the island with planters. The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, and it is from this date that St Helena claims to be Britain's second oldest remaining colony, after Bermuda. A fort was completed and a number of houses were built. After the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a Royal Charter giving it the sole right to fortify and colonise the island. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, in honour of the Duke of York and heir apparent, later King James II of England and VII of Scotland.
The Kingdom of England became part of the new Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and then the United Kingdom in 1801; the British Empire grew into a global great power. The most important and first settled, the island of Saint Helena, had been governed by the East India Company since 1659. It became internationally known as the British government's chosen place of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was detained on the island from October 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821, and it was made a British crown colony in 1834 by the Government of India Act 1833. [1] Unoccupied Ascension Island was garrisoned by the Royal Navy on 22 October 1815, shortly after which the end of the Age of Sail made its difficult location in the equatorial doldrums less important relative to its strategic importance as a centrally positioned naval coaling station. For similar reasons Tristan da Cunha was annexed as a dependency of the Cape Colony (British South Africa) on 14 August 1816, at the settlement of the Napoleonic wars. For a short period just previously, Tristan da Cunha had been inhabited by a private American expedition who named the territory the Islands of Refreshment.
The political union between these colonies began to take shape on 12 September 1922, when by letters patent Ascension Island became a dependency of Saint Helena. Lightly populated Tristan da Cunha, even today little more than an outpost with a population of less than three hundred, followed suit on 12 January 1938. The three island groups shared this constitutional relationship until 1 September 2009, when the dependencies were raised to equal status with St. Helena and the territories changed its name from "Saint Helena and Dependencies" to "Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha".
During the Battle of the Atlantic of World War II and the following several years of U-boat warfare in the Atlantic, both Saint Helena and Ascension Island were used by the Allies to base patrolling anti-surface-commerce-raider and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) forces against the Axis powers' naval units. Initially long range naval patrol flying boats were used in the effort, and later in the war during the struggle to improve air coverage over the commercially important sea lanes, air strips were built to support land based aircraft which supplied, augmented and complemented the PBY Catalina patrol planes in the vitally important ASW mission.
The United Kingdom and the United States still jointly operate the airfield (RAF Ascension Island) on Ascension, which also serves as a space-based communications, signals intelligence, and navigation nexus and hub (Ground station). One of only four GPS satellite ground antennas is located there.
The territories stretch across a huge distance of the South Atlantic Ocean with the northern-most island, Ascension, having a latitude of 7° 56′ S of the equator and the southern-most island, Gough Island, at 40° 19′ S. Between Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha is the Tropic of Capricorn. The distance between the northern tip of Ascension Island and the southern tip of Gough Island is 2,263 miles (3,642 km) (an equivalent distance between London and the Dead Sea). The three territories lie in the Western Hemisphere and have the same time zone: Greenwich Mean Time. Daylight saving time is not observed.
Although all three territories were formed by volcanic activity, only the Tristan da Cunha group of islands are volcanically active at the moment.
The highest point of the territories is Queen Mary's Peak on the island of Tristan da Cunha, with an elevation of 2,062 metres (6,765 ft) above sea level. The mountain is listed as an ultra prominent peak.
Because of the massive distance from north to south (over 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi)), the territories have various climates. Ascension has a warm, arid climate, with temperatures all year long into the 20 °C. St Helena is more moderate (and arid near the coasts). Tristan da Cunha, being closer to the Antarctic Circle, is much cooler and a lot wetter. The uninhabited southernmost Gough Island is wetter and has freezing winter temperatures.
The territorial waters of the islands extend out to 12 nautical miles (22 km) from their coastal baselines. The Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) extend 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the islands' baselines. Despite their size, the three EEZs do not overlap or touch one another, nor do they reach the EEZs of any other country or territory. The territories have the largest EEZ of any of the British overseas territories (indeed larger than the United Kingdom's) and if included in the ranking of countries by size of EEZ, the territories would be 21st, behind Portugal and ahead of the Philippines. Neither the islands nor their EEZs are the subject of any current international dispute.
Part | km2 | sq mi |
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Ascension Island | 441,658 | 170,525 |
Saint Helena | 444,916 | 171,783 |
Tristan da Cunha | 754,720 | 291,400 |
Total | 1,641,294 | 633,708 |
An application was made in 2008 by the United Kingdom to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend the limit of the continental shelf claim of Ascension Island beyond 200 nautical miles (370 km). The Commission recommended in 2010 that the limit not be extended beyond the standard limit, based on scientific surveys. [7]
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Administratively, each territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is governed by a council. The Governor of the territory presides over the Saint Helena Legislative Council, and an Administrator on Ascension Island and an Administrator on Tristan da Cunha preside over these two areas' Island Councils. See Constitution section below.
Administrative area | Area km2 | Area sq mi | Population [2] | Administrative centre |
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Saint Helena | 122 | 47 | 4,534 | Jamestown |
Ascension Island | 88 | 34 | 806 | Georgetown |
Tristan da Cunha | 184 | 71 | 293 | Edinburgh of the Seven Seas |
Main island | 98 | 39 | 293 | |
Inaccessible Island | 14 | 5 | 0 | |
Nightingale Islands | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0 | |
Gough Island | 68 | 26 | 0 | |
Total | 394 | 152 | 5,633 | Jamestown |
The island of St Helena is then further divided into eight districts. [8]
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha |
Judiciary
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The Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 (an Order in Council of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom) enacted a new constitution for the territories, which came into effect on 1 September 2009. Although raising Ascension and Tristan da Cunha to equal status with Saint Helena, the constitution is divided into three chapters, one for each territory. Saint Helena has a Governor and a Legislative Council, whilst Tristan da Cunha and Ascension each have an Administrator and an Island Council. Notably the constitution includes (for each territory) the "fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals". [9]
Part | Crown representative | Council |
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Saint Helena | Governor of Saint Helena | Legislative Council of Saint Helena |
Ascension Island | Administrator of Ascension Island | Ascension Island Council |
Tristan da Cunha | Administrator of Tristan da Cunha | Tristan da Cunha Island Council |
Saint Helena also has an Executive Council. The Governor of Saint Helena is the British monarch's representative. The three territories share the same Attorney General, and the same Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
The territories are an Overseas Country or Territory of the European Union, with limited aspects of European Union membership applied to its administration, its laws and its citizens. It does not however form part of the European Union (the only British overseas territory that does is Gibraltar).
Most residents of St. Helena belong to the Anglican Communion through the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and are members of the Diocese of St Helena, which has its own bishop and includes Ascension Island.
Roman Catholics are pastorally served by the Missio sui iuris of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, whose office of ecclesiastical superior is vested in the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands.
Saint Helena used sterling currency as in the United Kingdom until 1976 when it began to issue its own banknotes at par with sterling. In 1984, the territory also began to issue its own coinage, similar to the coinage of the United Kingdom but with different designs on the reverse. The Saint Helena currency also circulates on Ascension Island, but not in the other territory, Tristan da Cunha, where UK currency circulates.
The Currency Commissioners, part of the Government of Saint Helena, issue the St Helena pound banknotes and coins. There is no central bank, with the currency pegged to pound sterling which is controlled by the Bank of England in London. The Bank of Saint Helena is the territory's only bank. The bank sets its own deposit and lending rates and has branches in Jamestown on Saint Helena and Georgetown on Ascension Island. Although the bank does not have a physical presence on Tristan da Cunha, the residents of Tristan are entitled to use its services. [10]
Sure South Atlantic provide the telecommunications service in the territories. Saint Helena has the international calling code +290 which, since 2006, Tristan da Cunha shares. Telephone numbers are four digits long. Numbers start with 1–9, with 8xxx being reserved for Tristan da Cunha numbers and 2xxx for Jamestown. [11] Ascension Island has the calling code +247 and also has four-digit numbers on the island. [12] Ascension Island also held an extensive broadcast facility for international shortwave transmissions to Africa and South America.
Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena all issue their own postage stamps, which provide a significant income. The three territories each have their own Royal Mail postal code:
The Flag of the United Kingdom is used for all official purposes; and each of the three territories have its own flag for official use. Between 2002 and 2013 Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha each had their own separate flags, whilst Ascension Island used the Union Flag, and before 2002 the flag of Saint Helena was used in Tristan da Cunha for all official purposes.
The flag of Saint Helena was adopted on 4 October 4, 1984. It is a defaced (i.e. differentiated) Blue Ensign, i.e. a blue field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the shield from the coat of arms of Saint Helena centred on the outer half of the flag. The shield features a rocky coastline and a three-masted sailing ship, with a Saint Helena plover, also known as a wirebird, atop. It was updated in 2018 to depict a more realistic looking wirebird.
The flag of Ascension Island was adopted on 11 May 2013. [13] The flag is a blue ensign design, defaced with the coat of arms of Ascension Island. Prior to the adoption of this flag, the island used the Union Flag of the United Kingdom for official purposes.
The flag of Tristan da Cunha was adopted on 20 October 2002, in a proclamation made by the Governor of Saint Helena under a Royal Warrant granted by Queen Elizabeth II. Prior to this, as a dependency of Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha used the flag of Saint Helena for official purposes.
The flag is a blue ensign design, defaced with the coat of arms of Tristan da Cunha — a Tristan longboat above a Naval Crown, with a central shield decorated with four yellow-nosed albatrosses and flanked by two Tristan rock lobsters. Below this is a scroll with the territory's motto, Our faith is our strength.
Each of the three main islands has a harbour or small port, situated in the islands' chief settlement (Georgetown, Jamestown, and Edinburgh). In addition St. Helena has a 118m long permanent wharf facility, built as part of the airport project, in Rupert's Bay for bulk, containerised and general cargos as well as passenger landings. [14]
St. Helena Airport received its first scheduled commercial flight on 14 October 2017. [15] Commercial flights, operated by Airlink, using an Embraer E190, are scheduled from OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg each Saturday, returning the same day (or Sunday on weekends where the extension to Ascension Island is operating).
Commercial flights between St. Helena and Ascension Island operate on the second Saturday of each month, with the aircraft returning to St. Helena on the Sunday, before continuing on to Johannesburg. [16]
A military airfield exists on Ascension Island (RAF Ascension Island), though potholes on the runway resulted in the April 2017 cancellation of all but essential personnel/supply flights as well as emergency medical evacuations. [17] [18] Regular RAF flights connected Ascension with RAF Brize Norton in the UK and RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands, a transport link called the South Atlantic Air Bridge. The flights are mainly to transport military personnel, though the RAF did allow fare-paying civilians to use them. Ascension Island is also used by the US military (which supply the base using MV Ascension) and was a designated emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle program. The islands of Tristan da Cunha can only be accessed by sea due to the lack of an airport.
Saint Helena has 138 kilometres (86 mi)—118 kilometres (73 mi) paved and 20 kilometres (12 mi) unpaved—of roads. Tristan da Cunha has approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of paved roads, while Ascension has around 40 kilometres (25 mi) paved. [19] Each island has its own vehicle registration plate system. Traffic drives on the left in all three territories, as is the case in the United Kingdom itself. Two of the nearest countries to the islands—South Africa and Namibia—also drive on the left.
This article is about the demographics of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory in the south Atlantic Ocean.
Politics of Saint Helena takes place in a framework of limited self-government as a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, whereby the Governor is the head of government. Saint Helena, an island in the southern Atlantic Ocean, is a part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Tristan da Cunha, colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean which includes Gough Island. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 1,511 miles (2,432 km) off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,343 miles (2,161 km) from Saint Helena and 2,166 miles (3,486 km) off the coast from the Falkland Islands.
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are fourteen territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories. These territories do not form part of the United Kingdom and, with the exception of Gibraltar, are not part of the European Union. Most of the permanently inhabited territories are internally self-governing, with the UK retaining responsibility for defence and foreign relations. Three are inhabited only by a transitory population of military or scientific personnel. They all share the British monarch as head of state.
RAF Ascension, also known as Wideawake Airfield or Ascension Island Auxiliary Field, is a military airfield and facility located on Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The airfield is jointly operated by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF).
The Saint Helena pound is the currency of the Atlantic islands of Saint Helena and Ascension, which are constituent parts of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is fixed at parity with the pound sterling and as such both currencies are commonly accepted and circulated. It is subdivided into 100 pence.
This is a list of coats of arms of the United Kingdom, constituent parts, Crown dependencies and its overseas territories.
The Governor of Saint Helena is the representative of the British monarch in the United Kingdom's overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the official advice of Her Majesty's Government (HMG).
Ascension Island is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, part of the wider British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Like other British Overseas Territories, it issues its own postage stamps, which provide a source of income for the island from sales to overseas collectors, as well as being used for domestic and international postage.
The coat of arms of Saint Helena, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, was authorised on 30 January 1984.
The Saint Helena Supreme Court was established in 1839. and has jurisdiction over the entire territory.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Saint Helena:
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Tristan da Cunha:
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56' south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) from the coast of Africa and 2,250 kilometres (1,400 mi) from the coast of Brazil. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely-populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, some 3,730 kilometres (2,300 mi) to the south, about halfway to the Antarctic Circle.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha have gradually evolved over the years. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is banned in the entire territory through the Constitution Order 2009 and same-sex marriage has been legal on the islands since 2017.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory, does not have its own flag, however, the three administrative divisions do have their own flags:
This is a list of public holidays in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean consisting of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
The United Kingdom possesses a number of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean and claims a section of the Antarctic continent. These territories are St. Helena with Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the UK's claim to the so called British Antarctic Territory. The official currency in these territories is either Pound sterling or a local currency that evolved from sterling and is at a fixed one-to-one parity with sterling.
The politics of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha operate under the jurisdiction of the government of the United Kingdom. The three parts of the territory—Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha—effectively form an asymmetric federacy and collectively constitute one of United Kingdom's fourteen overseas territories.
The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 is a Statutory Instrument of the Parliament of the United Kingdom direct from the Privy Council of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for a new Constitution for the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which at the time before the Constitution came into force was formally known as St Helena and Dependences under the provisions of the The St. Helena Constitution Order 1988 which the 2009 Order replaces. The new Constitution gave each of the main islands equal status and ended the status of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha as dependences of Saint Helena within the territory although it retained a single Governor who is based in Jamestown as well as a single legal system and also two Administrators for both Ascension and Tristan and it came into force on September 1 2009.
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