Tamba- Tambaman played a part in famous hoax.

Readers might be familiar with the San Serriffe hoax.
On April 1, 1977 England's Guardian newspaper  published a seven-page supplement devoted to the previously unknown island state of San Serriffe.
Interestingly our very own Greg Rowley played a significant role in this, although his name does not appear among the credits.
When I mentioned the San Seriffe hoax to him the other day he smiled as though evoking a fond memory.
'Like a few of the bright boys at Tamba- Tamba at that time I was lucky enough to benefit from what was known as  a Kakoy scholarship. I went to London , to private school, and then on to The University of Sussex. After graduating I was given an internship at the Guardian (journalism was my forte then, the history side developed later).
Tim Radford took a particular interest in me, and was very keen to talk to me about Tamba- Tamba at any given opportunity. He even started taking me over to his place in Virginia Water in the evenings for dinner and drinks. At first I assumed that he was going to propose that we did some piece on Tamba- Tamba. 
I thought the article was hilarious. It resonated with me because during my time in England people would ask me where I was from and they would be completely ignorant of Tamba- Tamba, so as far as the majority of English people were concerned it was no surprise they fell for San Seriffe. As I remember it it was Tim who was responsible for developing the idea of San Seriffe more so than Phillip Davies...
Some of the guys on the staff were sure that San Seriffe was modelled on Tamba-Tamba more closely than it really was, but what Tim got from me was the notion that this country could exist, and have quite a complex history and that people in England, a pretty educated section of society, could be wholly ignorant of it.'

Heroes of The Revolution

Natalie Victoria Berry - 'The Fearless Girl Soldier'.

In an era when female freedom fighters often grabbed the headlines and the imagination of the public (Ulrike Meinhoff, Leila Khaled), Tamba- Tamba had Natalie Victoria Berry.

Natalie Victoria was a very promising scholar and a keen student of revolutionary politics, joining the forces of Dick Francis at a very young age. She was a great advocate of direct action and welcomed the Revolution as an opportunity to exact revenge on the military oppressors.

Following the Revolution she was engaged in diplomatic work for The People's Council, travelling to Brazil, Cuba and Vietnam.

She disappeared whilst visiting The Soviet Union, and is believed to still be living and working in Russia.

Island Scenes.

Hoopers Point- photograph by Elza Rowley- Hooper (2005).

Elza says: This was my first ever attempt at aerial photography. We flew around the archipelago in one of the People's Aircraft- a Cessna 195 piloted by Robin Howard.

The Death of Clifton Gates Kakoy.

Despite the martial atmosphere life on Tamba- Tamba followed a relatively normal pattern and the hostilities remained a very distant affair.
In April 1915 the islanders prepared for the Hargie Cull, which had taken place annually since at least 1800.
Every man, woman, girl and boy big and healthy enough to bear a weapon participated in the event.
Clifton Gates Kakoy and his party had a lodge near Cox's Plantation, and after breakfasting with their guest, Snr.  Juan Angel McDonald, an engineer from Buenos Ares, the Kakoy party set out to bag their first lot of bandicoots.

At approximately 11:00 the party divided into two in order to flush some quarry out of a thicket.
A rifle discharged and The Kakoy fell. He had been shot through the left cheek and died instantly. Dr Bramwell Livermore was at the scene, but could see that there was nothing to be done.
The identity of the person who's gun caused the fatality was never revealed.

Sons of Dreadful Hargie Hunting Club.

Members of the Kakoy's party on the fateful day, left to right: Snr. Juan Angel McDonald of Buenos Ares, Sir Hugo Gates, Harry Roy.

The Kakoy had been well liked and the island plunged into mourning. Every person on the island attended the funeral, as well as a group from Wessels Island.

Clifton Gates Kakoy lies in state at The Big House.

Clifton Gates begins his final journey- left to right: Lady Cecilia Gates, Letitia Sleight, Dickon Berry (he built the coffin),  Sir Hugo Gates, Harry Roy  Kakoy,  Dr Bramwell Livermore, Lawrence Stock,  Harold Makepeace (a member of the Kakoy household).

The Old Cemetery-used from 1777- 1965- note the solitary Christian gravemarker, that of The Unknown Sailor.

 

 

The Kakoy Mausoleum photographed in the 1970's. It was demolished after the Revolution.

The Sloop Brougham Sleight

Clifton Gates had been a keen sailor in his youth, and he assumed the office of Commodore of the Tamba-Tamba defense force.
The force actually consisted of the sloop Brougham Sleight.

 The Brougham Sleight on patrol in Hargreaves Sound.

 

Clifton Gates in his Commodore's Uniform, made by Smelt & Co., The Burlington Arcade, London.

Tamba- Tambamen at war, 1914-1918.

The Palmerston Pals, Edgar Howard, Albert Cox and Herbert Makepeace.These brave Tamba- Tambamen travelled to England together in December 1914 to enlist in the Royal Navy. They served together aboard HMS Marlborough which was damaged at Jutland. Howard and Makepeace returned to Tamba- Tamba after the war, and Cox settled down on the island of Hoy, where he married a local woman.

Tamba- Tamba born Wessels Hooper moved to Adelaide as a boy. In 1914 he joined The Australian Light Horse and saw action in Gallipoli. Trooper Hooper contracted measles in the Dardanelles  and died on a hospital ship in 1915.

Able Seaman Bill Berry. Born in Palmerston in 1888, William Brougham Berry moved to England in 1908. Bill had been serving in the Royal Navy since 1910. He perished at the Battle of Jutland when his ship, HMS Invincible, was sunk with the loss of 1126 lives.

Pvt. Joshua Stock of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Having worked his passage to England in order to enlist Pvt. Stock served with distinction on the Western Front.He was described by his commanding officer as 'the most able and resourceful man in his company... a credit to the Negro race'. He eventually returned to Tamba- Tamba in 1921.

The Great War

In 1914 news still took about three weeks to reach Tamba - Tamba from either Europe or the United States.
Clifton Gates officially received the news that Britain had declared war on Germany (4th August) on September 2nd.
An extraordinary meeting of the Council was held.
The possibility of Tamba- Tamba declaring war on Germany was discussed.
Sir Hugo Gates spoke of the strong ties that existed between Tamba-Tamba and the British Empire, even after 60 years of independence.
Clifton Gates pointed out that the United States was maintaining neutrality. He was increasingly enamoured with the USA. On a practical note, he pointed out that Germany was an emerging naval power and that a declaration of war might invite irresistable hostility from the Germans.
Leading citizen, Jeremiah Cox took the stance that Tamba- Tamba should not concern itself with power struggles in Europe. He accepted the concerns that the island was dependent on its trade links with Britain.
The following  resolutions were passed.

1. Tamba- Tamba would remain neutral.
2. The harbour at Palmerston would formally be placed at the disposal of the British Navy (Clifton Gates wrote to First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill to this effect, but no reply is recorded).
3. Any Tamba- Tambaman wishing to join the armed forces of the British Empire was free to do so.
4. Any Tamba- Tambaman wishing to join the armed forces of Germany, Austria- Hungary or their allies would be considered to have surrendered his citizenship of Tamba- Tamba.
5. A civil defence militia with the sole aim of repelling invasion would be formed. This would include a patrol boat which would cover the entire Hargreaves Archipelago.

 

Sir Hugo Gates (seated left) with a Militia patrol, 1915. Harry Roy stands directly behind him.

 Militia men at their post at Palmerston Quays, 1915.

The island did suffer some hardship in the early stages of the war as the regular shipping route to England was interrupted by German activity.
The Militia was operational from October 1914- December 1918.
The patrol sloop Brougham Kakoy  carried out almost continuous patrols of the archipelago for the duration of hostilities but never made contact with any enemy vessel.

It's a whopper!

 

Congratulations to Doug Henderson on landing this monster Toppimuri, which weighed 68 kg!

Investments Manager Doug, who was on his first ever trip to Tamba-Tamba, was out fishing with Marvin Hooper when he landed the whopper.

'If you like the thrill of big game fishing and a friendly , laid back atmosphere then Tamba- Tamba is a great place to visit!' said 37 year old Doug, of Staines in Middlesex.

A Remarkable Young Man...

A Remarkable young man...
Leon Trotsky records his impression of  Thomas Paine Cox in his diary, November 1917.

We managed again to get a lift out to Smolny with some heavily armed sailors in a commandeered car. The English reporter, Tom Cox was there, tirelessly badgering the restless sentries in his faltering Russian.
 from Ten Days That Shook The World- John Reed.

Thomas Paine Cox (1887- 1920)

Thomas Paine Cox first came to the public eye as a fourteen year old schoolboy selected to play cricket for Tamba- Tamba against the MCC.

He was a good scholar, and Clifton Gates  Kakoy funded his education. In preference to an English public school.In September 1904, Tom was sent to Morristown School in New Jersey to prepare to go to Harvard in the fall of 1906 he entered Harvard College.Cox graduated from Harvard College in 1910, and that summer he set out to see more of the world, funded still by Clifton Gates, visiting England, France, and Spain before returning  to America the following spring. he the embarked on a  career in journalism.

In the autumn of 1913 Cox went to Mexico to report on the Revolution,spending four months with the army of Pancho Villa.

In August, 1914, Cox set sail for Europe again. He reported widely on the Great War.

By now his interest in Radical Politics was firmly established, and in 1917 he was in Petrograd for the March Revolution.

Staying on in Russia Cox was an eyewitness to the momentous events of November 1917. He was as close to Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov and the other principles as any non Russian.

He published a number of pamphlets in the United States and Britain championing the Bolshevik cause.

Returning to Russia in 1920 Cox travelled south with Frunze's forces as they took on Makhno's anarchists in the Ukraine . En route he met Jaroslav Hasek In Samara.
Privately, Cox felt more affinity with Makhno than he did with the Bolsheviks.

Sadly during the expedition Cox contracted typhus, and died in Tsaritsyn.

The Automobile

 Sir Hugo Gates driving , Clifton Gates' wife Letitia beside him.

Lady Cecilia Gates at the controls, her husband looking suitably relaxed.

The steamer Montferrand  which brought M. Manqué and his aeroplane to Tamba- Tamba was also carrying a Renault Voiturette. Purchased by Clifton Gates from Major Henri Lens of Ostend,  it was the island's first automobile.

Clifton Gates and his entourage received lessons from M. Manqué. The supply of gasoline, also shipped on the Montferrand  was very limited, and the car proved to be something of a fleeting novelty.
Motors were not effectively introduced to the island until the 1920's when a ready supply of gasoline became available.

The Aeroplane

Sir Hugo Gates speaks with M. Manqué prior to take off. 

Clifton Gates Kakoy was usually a prudent man, but his reign was marked by one great extravagance. He had a long standing fascination with aviation. Clifton Gates longed for an aeroplane to visit Tamba- Tamba, but it was out of the range of the aircraft of the day.  So, in 1910, he ploughed most of his personal fortune into a scheme to bring an aeroplane to the island. Nine years had passed since Gustave Whitehead had made the first manned flight. It is hard for us to appreciate how novel the sight of the aeroplane was to the islanders.
Clifton Gates paid for the famous Belgian aviator, Georges Manqué to have one of his machines shipped to Tamba-Tamba to give an exhibition. The land that was prepared as an airstrip is actually the site of the present airport.

 Gorgeous Georges at the controls.

As well as being enthralled  by the aeroplane the islanders were also astonished by the pilot himself. M. Manqué, known as 'Gorgeous George', was in the habit of dressing as a woman and wearing make-up.
Clifton Gates' young son Harry Roy was undoubtedly influenced by the charismatic M. Manqué, as he too became a keen transvestite, one of his most noteworthy eccentricities being his frequent appearances as 'Lady Harriet'.

Georges Manqué (1880-1912) 

Harry Roy in the guise of 'Lady Harriet'

Clifton Gates

Young Clifton c 1870

Clifton Gates Sleight was born at Tamba- Tamba in 1860, the son of Brougham Sleight and Lady Margaret.
As his mother died when he was just a few months old Clifton Gates was sent to live with relatives in England.
He was a good scholar, a progressive thinker, who modelled himself on his hero, Prince Albert.
Clifton Gates was something of a celebrity at Oxford, where he wore elaborate military uniforms and styled himself Heir Apparent to the Rajah of Tamba- Tamba. He visited the island on alternate years and returned permanently in 1895, having revitalised his father's remaining English estates through the mechanisation of agriculture and the wool industry.
During the last four years of his father's life, during which the Old Kakoy was showing increasing signs of senility, Clifton Gates became more actively involved in the running of the island.
Clifton Gates found the Council obsequious and shambolic. And he told them so.
He wanted a body of men to help him to govern the island and to ensure that his rule was fair. He brought in his cousin, The Hon. Sir Hugo Gates, who had some diplomatic experience in the Colonies, to support him in the administration of the state.

Clifton Gates, Oxford 1882

Clifton Gates' tenure as Kakoy coincided with one of the most progressive periods in history, and at this time Tamba- Tamba did indeed see many technological leaps forward, including the first automobile, the first aeroplane to land on the island and the introduction of mechanised industry.

Island Scenes.

Hoopers Point Jetty- Photograph by Elza Rowley- Hooper (2010)

Sport at Tamba- Tamba: Football- The PROTT League/ FA Cup

Association Football was introduced to Tamba- Tamba by British sailors in the last decade of the 19th century.

Clifton Gates, a great believer in the salutary qualities of organised sport, founded The Football Club of Tamba- Tamba in 1910. The club, like its cricket counterpart, had the reputation of being somewhat nepotistic and exclusive. In 1911 the townsmen of Palmerston issued a formal challenge to The Football Club, and the island's second team, Albion, came into being.
The Football Club remained the dominant team, and unsurprisingly it was they who played in the islands first representative match in 1914, when Exeter City visited Tamba- Tamba on their way home from South America. Exeter City won 4-1.
Portsmouth FC visited later in the year for reasons that are shrouded in mystery. They played both The Football Club ( Portsmouth won 3-1) and Albion. Albion beat the visitors by 3 goals to 2 in an extraordinary match. Albion members then formed Pompey in lasting tribute to their guests.
Given the small population, it is not surprising that the quality of Tamba- Tamba football was not high, with young lads and older players often making up the numbers.

One notable exception was  George Berry (1903- 1970). Growing up in Palmerston and playing his football with Albion, young George later moved to England and played a handful of matches for Millwall before moving to Aldershot Town. Ever restless, he later found himself in Chile where he played for Santiago Wanderers. The Chileans were keen to take him to the 1930 World Cup, but he declined the offer of citizenship. He later moved to Newell's Old Boys in Argentina. On his return to Tamba- Tamba he played on into his late 40's and then coached FC Tamba- Tamba for many years.
After the Revolution the game advanced in leaps and bounds under the watchful eye of the Peoples Council for Sport and Recreation.

FC Tamba- Tamba

Known as 'The Big Side', founded in 1910, historically the richest and  most successful club on the island. Enjoyed the patronage of the Kakoys. In recent years has attracted attention through its signing of the Brazilian professionals Edison dos Santos and Julianinho. 

International

Founded in 1967 when increasing numbers of overseas workers were arriving in Tamba- Tamba , Inter replaced the traditional whipping boys , Plantation FC.  Players registered to the club had to have been born outside Tamba- Tamba. This rule no longer applies.

Albion

The second club, founded 1911- 'the club of the poor'. Traditionally the most fanatically supported club. Famously defeated Portsmouth in 1914.

Pompey

Pompey's origins are unique in the world of football in that they were founded as a 'guest' team whose role any visitors to Tamba- Tamba  would be asked to fulfil. Originally a 'second string' to Albion who played them in practice matches, the first actual team to assume the 'role' of Pompey were the crew of HMS Neptune in 1918. They became a 'proper' club in 1936 to compete in the FA Cup.

The Workers

Founded 1980 to replace Corinthians, a club which had been formed by George Wilmslow Kakoy in 1933.

The PROTT league was instituted in 1980.Prior to this the matches had been played on a friendly or challenge basis, with the exception of the FA Cup. Each year four clubs would play a knock out tournament of two legs with the overall winners meeting the last seasons winners in the FA Cup final. The first FA Cup took place in 1935.

Since 1981 the FA Cup has been contested by the two teams finishing top of the league. The final is held on the first Saturday following May 15th.

A campaign to win the recognition of FIFA is ongoing. Both Herr Josef Blatter and Mr Jack Warner have attended matches at The May 15th Stadium. During the Pre- Revolutionary era FC Tamba-Tamba were the national team by default, playing matches against Cape Verde (several matches), New York Cosmos (1975), Botofago (Brazil -1964) Chelsea (England-1968) and Zaire (1974).

Since 1980 the national team has been truly representative, although fixtures have been limited (2 per year on average). The latest foreign team to visit Tamba Tamba was FC Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.

PROTT (National Side)