Acknowledgements for the 2021 website version of the Dictionary

(for the Acknowledgments to the 2008 printed version of the Dictionary see below)

My greatest debt, and that of all users of this website, is to Mr Tom McAdam who designed the website for minimal recompense. It would have been impossible for me to afford to commission a commercial company to undertake the considerable task of designing a system and loading it with the contents of the printed DFB. As it is, Tom has produced a website which is user-friendly and permits prompt and easy movement between biographies. It has absorbed the printed volume and provided space for numerous additional illustrations, comments and references.

I am also deeply grateful to Dr Stephen Palmer who describes himself as ‘research assistant’ but is in effect the operational manager of the DFB website. Stephen has scoured various sources for additional illustrations for the website, increasing the number of pictures from the original 365 in the printed DFB to 1,700 (and counting) in the website. He has also identified new personalities for inclusion and established links with numerous families of people who already feature in the DFB, or people whom he intends to include.

In Stanley, the project has received invaluable help from the Government Archivist Ms Tansy Bishop, always ready to provide counsel and information from the Jane Cameron National Archives and herself author of a website of considerable interest. Mrs Joan SPRUCE and Mrs Sally Blake have both been ready with information, photographs and advice.

Closer to home, I have been grateful for the support of a master of Falklands history, Graham Pascoe, and fortunate to have been granted a sight of the typescripts of his work in progress.

Finally I am grateful to everyone from all over the world who has consulted this website and particularly to those who have contributed material which has helped to enlarge and illuminate the entries in the Dictionary of Falklands Biography.

David Tatham

April 2021

Acknowledgements for the printed version of the Dictionary (published in 2008)

My first and greatest debt is to my fellow contributors, who undertook a great deal of original research, without any reward, before producing essays which cover a wide range of personalities at very different periods of history. It will be clear from the List of Contributors that several have been exceptionally generous with their time and talents.

They and I owe a great deal to the Falkland Islands Government which has provided me with funds to cover the basic expenses of an editor – postage, stationery and the establishment of a website. In the year of publication Government has contributed a substantial sum to cover printing costs. At no time have they even considered seeking any editorial control.

All the contributors are also indebted to Stanley Services Limited, who have funded the provision of a copy of the finished Dictionary to each of them. As there are well over one hundred contributors, this represents a very generous gesture. I have also received gifts from Sir Cosmo HASKARD and Mrs Mary Fullerton which have touched and encouraged me.

As Editor I have a particular debt to the Falkland Islands Government Archivist in Stanley, JANE CAMERON, and her assistant, Tansy Newman. Jane’s knowledge of Falklands history is unmatched and she has been very generous to me and to every other contributor who has sought her help. The Dictionary simply could not have been completed without her.

Because the Dictionary was in danger of spreading beyond a single volume, I have had to restrict the space allowed to contributors for references, further reading lists and acknowledgements. May I thank on their behalf the large number of librarians, archivists (particularly school archivists – unfailingly helpful), museum and gallery curators, and friends, relations and former colleagues of DFB subjects who have contributed information, insights and illustrations to the finished volume?

Thanks are due to Stefan Heijtz, who has edited and produced the DFB website over five years and to the staff of the Falkland Islands Government Office in London, (Sukey Cameron, Melissa Rawlinson and Colin Patterson-Smith) who have provided invaluable help with the copying and production of drafts of the Dictionary. And to Michael John Tatham, Fiona Sparrow and Elizabeth Anson who have proof read the final text.

In conclusion, I express my sincere thanks to the designer of this book, Robert Still of Wild Guides. He has not only produced a very handsome volume, but he has guided me through the printing and distribution process. I am deeply grateful to him.

I hope they feel the Dictionary is worth it all.