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Our three children spent much of their childhood in the Falklands (see Emigration under Dunnose Head Farm, for details.) When we travelled from Devon in 1979 they were quite small.

Robert's the eldest, born in Tavistock, Devon in 1971. Clive and I were renting a small Dartmoor farm called Oldsbrim at the time. He's a qualified plumber, but left his post with the Falkland Islands Government for a while,  to see something of the world. He thoroughly enjoyed life as a volunteer worker on the Kramim kibbutz (Israel), about six miles south of the West Bank, and loved all the new experiences. He met all nationalities,  made friends with a Bedouin family, and generally the most of his time. His Hebrew came along slowly and he sent reports of his travels back to the Islands' newspaper, the Penguin News.

Since then Rob has changed careers.  After some time being self-employed as a plumber in town, he then worked as a fitter with FIGAS, the local government air service, he has started work out at the military base/airport, Mount Pleasant.  He is now working for British International on their Sikorski helicopters, used to ferry troops and others round the islands as well as delivering freight and fuel to outlying bases.   He bought his sister's little house in Stanley some years back, when she left the Falklands, and spends his spare time (working two months on, a month off) zipping up and down Stanley Harbour - or further afield - should that be further asea?? - aboard the 14ft catamaran he built from scratch.  He also owns a couple of Laser dinghies and enjoys teaching others to sail.  He now has his eyes on a larger cat, to be shipped from England...

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Rob's younger brother Alistair was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1972. (We spent two years in Scotland, while Clive was managing Rahoy, a West Highland estate on Morvern, Argyll.) Ali trained in Microelectronics in England, obtaining his BTEC also City & Guilds Electronic Servicing. He was employed by Cable & Wireless as a telephone engineer in the Camp Radio section (which means he often works out in Camp, the countryside outside Stanley, maintaining and troubleshooting the radio telephone system that keeps us all in touch with the world).

He now has responsibility for the whole department and is married to Johan Gray,  an Islander born and bred. Jo spent much of her childhood on Sea Lion Island. She and Alistair first met when they both boarded at the Stanley school hostel. Jo gained a 2.1 in England  training as a Medical Laboratory Science Officer, Grade 1, at Brighton University. She returned after qualifying, to work in the Islands' hospital laboratory and is now running it.  We're very fond of her. 

Ali is a Landrover enthusiast - there are more Landrovers per capita in the Falklands than anywhere else in the world. He and Jo both enjoy underwater diving, and own a motorboat.  They built a new house in Stanley which they now share with baby son Ty.  Ty caused us all a great deal of worry when he arrived three months premature and was rushed to Montevideo, Uruguay along with his parents and a medical team, immediately after birth.  Various procedures followed because he had a bleed on the brain and he now has two shunts in his head.  But you would never know, to look at this gorgeous baby, how close to death he came... He is a real joy to everyone.

Our third child, Dorothy was born in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, in 1974.  She left the Falklands and  became a constable in the Devon & Cornwall Police, UK, based at present in Tavistock (where older brother Robert was born).  Coming back home for a holiday, she met Alex Gould from Somerset, a shearing contractor who was at the time working for an other contractor down here...   You can guess the rest.

 Prior to this she was in the Royal Falkland Islands Police Force, and before that worked as a casualty nurse in the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.  The nursing job was quite challenging at times, with not just run-of-the-mill problems but having to cope with foreign fishermen suffering serious injury.  These patients brought with them the inevitable language problems, not least of these being to do with things like food. She can still do a mean imitation of a chicken, cow or pig...  

Dot loves horses and is a skilled rider. The horse photo shows her on Spirit during one of his first rides, with Alistair helping, and was taken a while ago. Her horse Nighthawk spent his summers in town grazing various backyards and paddocks (Stanley is full of backyard horses then) or out on the Common, and was wintered away from town on a large farm. She reluctantly sold him when she left for England.

Alex and Dot are now married and have a son, Gorgeous Georgeous.  (well OK, his name is George...).  They presently live in Wiltshire, renting a farm cottage from which Alex runs his shearing business employing Falkland Islanders, Kiwis, Aussies and the occasional  Brit...  Hard work and because they accommodate everyone, a logistical nightmare at times but they seem to thrive on it.  Dot commuted to work for a while at Axminster but has now taken extended leave from the police.

So that's our family. They might have been born in Britain but the Falklands are very much home to them, even with Dot being away from here.  She admits to some homesickness at times but we are hugely proud of her. Clive sees more of the boys, plus Jo and Ty,  than I do, because he is often in town in connection with his business PowerSense.

Due to the time involved and flight costs, our kids rarely make it out to the farm. But they are a grand bunch, and we're proud of them.

Dot and Alex are bringing George to the Falklands this coming summer, arriving early October, which is wonderful for us.  Alex will shear for another contractor, the same one (Mike Allen) that brought him and Dot together in the first place...  Dot will travel with him where possible and I will take care of George now and then when I can. The new craft centre here is going to occupy a great deal of my time and we have to make it succeed...

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