Herald - Issue 414

28th October 2021 • The HERALD • Page 19 v F @ heraldpublishing v Come in and see our stylish range Tables, dressers, mirrors, lamps, home fragrance, coasters, art, giftware and lots more! 023 8084 4472 • beashomeltd@gmail.com Bea’s Home, 50 Pylewell Road, Hythe SO45 6AQ Quality furniture to suit every pocket Christmas Gifts, Decorations and more in store now! Waterside Carpet Cleaning PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANING! Using Prochem Equipment and Materials • SPOT/STAIN TREATMENT • Fully Insured 023 8066 0878 07747 037756 or 07770 337917 www.watersidecarpetcleaning.com ALL SAINTS CHURCH, FAWLEY roads, oxen and carts, mostly food that was home grown or caught in the sea, and life was very harsh with the winter storms and howling winds for much of the year. Everyone knew everybody, and there were only 8 or 9 families living on the Island. Suddenly there were metalled roads with motorised vehicles of all sorts, shops with unimaginable goods available in them, television, cinema, sports facilities etc. e volume of noise must have been awful compared with their Island living conditions and it must have seemed incredible. e men were mainly farmers and shermen, but many of them became employed in Southampton as refuse collectors. ey soon learnt to drive and bought cars, and one man bought a Jaguar. It must have seemed a dream come true. However, they did maintain some of their cultural ways of life. ere was one building which was a communal cook house and they all cooked and ate canteen style. e children were integrated into the local schools, many at what is now New Forest Academy at Hardley. is must have been quite scary for most of them, as in their life on Tristan they had all known each other, whereas now they were surrounded by unknown children. In 1963, two years a er the volcanic eruption, they were told that if they wished they could return home to Tristan, and all but three families went back. e Chief Islander was Conrad Glass MBE who was born in 1907 and died in Tristan on 12 April 2010. As of May 2021 there were 243 individuals living on the Island. e family names are Collins, Glass, Green, Hagen, Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers, Squibb and Swain. In All Saint’s Church at Fawley is a model of a ‘long- boat’ from Tristan da Cunha which is a memento from the Islanders while they were accommodated in Calshot. It is mostly kept in St. Nicholas Chapel, the oldest part of the church. One of the families who decided to stay were the Glass family and Allan Glass, a descendent of that family, became a professional engineer and took part in local politics becoming a Parish councillor for 30 years and then a member of the New Forest District Council for 12 years. He became Chairman of the New Forest District Council and is the only chairman to have remained in post for 2 years (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). My thanks to Allan and Chris Glass for their information that they gave to me. For the family members who have remained in the United Kingdom, there are some startling physical characteristics. ey are o en darker skinned in complexion and have jet black hair. Allan Glass said that when he visited a family member who he had not previously met, he was shocked to see a ‘double’ of his deceased grandmother sitting in a chair. It is a tradition that when a member of one of the ‘Tristan’ families dies here in U.K., their funeral is always held at 11:00hrs to coincide with the remembrance service for that person, also being held in Tristan at the same time. Continued from page 18 The Volcanic Island of Tristan de Cunha, located in the South Atlantic Ocean