LIFE ON LONELY ISLAND

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 2

LIFE ON LONELY ISLAND

English Teacher For Tristan da Cunha

[By SUSAN VAUGHAN] LONDON. What is it like to live on one of the world’s loneliest islands, where there are no electricity, shops, cars, horses or policemen? Miss Rhona Downes, a 51-year-old bespectacled schoolteacher, of Ramsgate, Kent, thinks it would be wonderful, so she is now sailing on board the research ship John Biscoe, bound for Tristan da Cunha. After 30 years as headmistress ■of an English girls’ school, Miss 'Downes wants to get away from humdrum, everyday routine. She is the only person who has come i forward to take the job of teaching the island’s children, about 60 of them. Tristan da Cunha, an island 'measuring seven miles across, lies in the South Atlantic 2000 miles west of Cape Town and 1500 miles south-south-west of Saint Helena.

Life is not easy there. You have to kill your own sheep. Milk comes in tins; and the island's vegetable produce is of poor quality. The weather is damp and windy, and much of the island is taken up by a volcano. Ships usually call four times a year. Travel on the island is by donkey. But Miss Downes knows what to expect and she is looking forward to living in a highly-social community, where everyone knows everyone else and where there are few restrictions. The island has no police, no prison, and. says Miss Downes, “no school inspectors.” The whole population of nearly 300 is invited to island weddings, Equally important are an islander’s first twenty-first, thirtieth, and fortieth birthdays. Each is celebrated by a great feast. Many islanders have gramophones for their favourite pastime of dancing, and the girls wear gay print dresses, almost anklelength. Swimming from the few beaches is a man’s pastime. Women’s swimsuits are unknown there and bikinis unheard of.