Two Great Leaders...

Havana, June 1981: Dr. Fidel Castro, Dick Francis.
The two Great Leaders have enjoyed a special relationship for many years.

Dennis Grimes has died.

Sad to relate that well known Palmerston  man Dennis Grimes has died.
Dennis was born in Palmerston in 1930. His parents were English immigrants who had moved to Tamba- Tamba in the mid 1920's.
Dennis spent his working life as a fisherman and lived in a cottage near the Quays. He never married and had no children.
His nephew, Noel Grimes paid tribute:
My Uncle Dennis Grimes was a truly unremarkable man. His main attribute was his consistency. Posterity? Nothing. Just a 100% ordinary  fellow who went about his daily routines, year in year out. He never asked nothing of nobody. He didn't really have many interests and I can't think of anything amusing to say about him.

An Account of the Principal Events of My Life by Henry Bould.

 Here's some stimulating news.
A member of the Prott team, Dr Dennis Groves, has recently spent time at  The Bodleian Library in Oxford studying the manuscript of An Account of the Principal Events of My Life by Henry Bould.

Bould, you may recall,  was the only survivor of the crew of  HMS Dreadful that left Tamba- Tamba under Mr Jeffries
Midshipman Henry Bould was born in Bristol in 1757. A conventional Young Gentleman, his early career was unremarkable. He supported Summer's mutiny as he was a believer in 'fair play'  and thought that Captain Stokes was no longer fit to command.
Captured by the French shortly after leaving Tamba-Tamba, Bould spent ten years as a prisoner in Guadeloupe. He escaped and made his way to the United States. He was granted a Royal Pardon in 1798 and returned to Portsmouth the following year. He lived to the age of 96 in quiet retirement in Bath Spa.

 Dr Groves

Dennis Groves writes: An Account of the Principal Events of My Life is a remarkable document. Quite how it has never been  published commercially is beyond me, as it contains all the elements of the great adventure stories.
However, our interest here lies with Tamba- Tamba, and of the approximately half a million words that Bould wrote,  just a few pages tell us anything about the island and the events that occurred there.
Bould comes across as being  the sort  who, almost naively, sees the good in everyone, and seems to be able to justify the actions of others even at his own expense.
He attributes Captain Stokes' 'decline of reason' to the ardours of a long journey with a fractious crew.
He writes admiringly of Summers, but seems that he was scarcely aware of Cock until Tome- Tome.
Following the death of Summers Bould's main motivation was to be able to return to England. He sided with Jeffries, he tells us, simply because he felt that being on board the ship was preferable to being 'marooned on an unknown island'.
According to Bould's account the relations between the two factions were almost cordial even when they were arguing on the most important point of all- whether to leave the island or not. There was some dislike of Cock and Rowley, says Bould, as it seemed to the ordinary men that they 'were grown too clever, not like the regular fellows of before.'  He also refers to Cock as 'godless' on more than one occasion.

Bould found Tamba- Tamba most pleasant island. He was ill at ease in Wessels island, and welcomed the absence of natives. He observed that Cock was probably correct in his conviction that men could live easily on the island, but that they were in fact , 'creating a most desolate gaol for themselves by remaining there'.
Bould refers to the ease with which the men were able to catch turtles and a variety of fishes, and although he describes the interior of the island as being 'mostly forested; so dense as to prove impenetrable' (200 years of human presence have taken their toll there, I'm afraid!), he alludes to 'various species of mamals (sic) or rodents and great sorts of birds' that were also eaten.
Bould doesn't really tell us anything startlingly new about the island, and his account of the disputes between Cock (he scarcely mentions Cock alone, it is always Cock and Rowley) and Jeffries are far from dramatic. This is, however, a remarkable document and would be of great interest to any enthusiasts of Tamba-Tamba history.

Did you know?

The renowned sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist and political commentator Hector Berry-Smith (1929-1984) had strong connections with Tamba-Tamba.
His mother, Hester Berry, was one of the Berry's of Tamba- Tamba. His father, Collin Scott Smith was a South African sea captain.
Hector was born in Cape Town and after studying at Cambridge he settled in London and Paris.
He visited the island on a number of occasions in the 1950's.
Hector Berry-Smith was one of only a few European based political commentators to write at length about The Revolution, and his work on the US Blockade of 1983- Simulacra of Oppression- The Blockade as Absurdist Theatre is considered a classic.

New Surgeon General Appointed.

 Dr R.J Leonard (photograph courtesy of The British Medical Journal)

Following the death of Prof. Hercules Hastings-Smith back in September The Peoples Council For Health and Medical Services have been engaged in the recruitment of a suitable replacement as Surgeon General.
Earlier today an official bulletin was released announcing that Dr R.J Leonard has accepted the post.
Secretary General of The Peoples Council For Public Services (Health and Medical Affairs, (subdivision recruitment)) Kyle Rowley said: Dr Leonard is just the sort of guy we were looking for. He's young, dynamic and a committed syndicalist. The Peoples Council are pleased to put the health of the people, our greatest asset, in his capable hands.
Dr Leonard was unavailable for comment, but we understand that he will be moving to Tamba-Tamba in February.

Orlando Hooper Remembers...

Orlando Hooper c1910

 We have been privileged to conduct a series of interviews with the oldest living Tamba- Tambaman, 109 year old Orlando Hooper . As he speaks in very pronounced Tamba- Tamba English we have made the text more 'reader friendly'.

 

Prott: Citizen Hooper, you were born in 1901; what is your earliest memory?

OH:  Well, I fancy I remember lots of things that I can't rightly recall- small details from around the house and that, from when I was no more than a baby, but reckon these must be things I was told later. For sure though I remember watching the boats coming in, and I remember wanting to go to the school with the other children. Normal, everyday things. I remember my uncle telling me that all Hoopers were fishermen, and waiting patiently to go out with them.

Prott: And you went out as a fisherman at a very young age?

OH: Full time from when I was nine, but even before that I was able to do some work on the boats. It didn't seem like work as you might think of it. It seemed most natural like. It was just what we did.

Prott: So you left school at nine?

OH: Yes- school started when you were five. It was only a couple of hours a day. But you had to go. Then once you had the basics, enough learning to be useful, your father could go to the Council and put the case for you going off to work. Or to carry on with your learning. All of us was fishing. My family always wanted more boats out, more men, less hard work. We were the main fishing family and it suited the Council. By the time I came along we were already providing enough so we could trade overseas.

Prott: This was a time of great advancement...

OH: For sure, things were getting more advanced. The Old Kakoy, he was all for it. 

Prott: Clifton Gates?

OH: Yes. All for the progress; machines and the like. It was him that started the cannery and the pickle works...

Prott: Do you think it was a good thing?

OH: For sure. People wanted it. There wasn't the problems they had elsewhere. Unemployment and that. It just made life easier for the working people.

It was always exciting when some new thing came to the island, a steam tractor or something.

Prott: Recently we've been looking back to the time of the 1914-1918 war, what do you remember about it?

OH: I remember thinking would I have to be a soldier? (laughs). And folks worrying that the Germans would invade Tamba. I don't know why they would have (laughs). Older lads, my brothers and that, doing their turn in the militia, and of course, Father and my Uncle going off to sea with The Kakoy on his warship.

Prott: The sloop?

OH: That's right. The Kakoy looked very grand in his uniform. I don't think there could have been a German or English general looking grander. Then of course when he died we had the big funeral. What a day. Everybody on Tamba was out there that day. I mean everybody. Everything stopped. There was a great sense of sadness over the whole place for a long time afterwards.
Prott: What do you remember about the Kakoy?
OH: The Old Kakoy and Sir Hugo were right amazing men. Always something new. Interested in the life of the ordinary folk too.
HR was another thing alltogether.
Prott: You knew him personally?
OH: I considered him a friend. I don't like it when they calls him The Mad Kakoy. A more lovely man you couldn't wish to meet. I remember him working on the vegetable plots- just the same as the other men, digging away, drinking his cold tea from a tin bottle, always smoking miserable little cigarettes. he would turn his hand at anything. He even did some work on our boats, painting and caulking and the like. Never saying too much, keeping his counsel as they say...

We'll be hearing more from Citizen Hooper in the near future.

Harry Roy

During an early visit to Tamba- Tamba c 1901.

 

At New York, 1908.

Henry Royston Sleight, the Third Kakoy.

 Lady Harriet

Some notes:
Harry Roy, as he was fondly known throughout his life, was born in Bristol in 1890.
He was the only son of Clifton Gates and Letitia Sleight.
He was sent to boarding school at seven. He later attended Clifton College. Harry Roy had problems learning. He was affected by homesickness, over-activity and poor concentration.
From the age of ten he spent his summers on Tamba- Tamba.
He loved the island and the people, and spent more time at Palmerston Quays than at the Big House.
His lack of academic achievement worried Clifton Gates. Clifton Gates sent him to the USA under the supervision of Thomas Paine Cox, but this did not achieve the desired end. In 1908 Tom Cox wrote to Clifton Gates:
'We are all cut from different cloth; even the son can differ greatly from the father. I think Harry will never be suited to academic study, or to any calling that requires such a background. I'm sorry to have to tell you this. Rest assured he has been splendid company, and his conduct is at all times impeccable'.
Harry Roy was returned to Tamba- Tamba and placed under the mentorship of his Uncle, Sir Hugo Gates.
Sir Hugo retained an advisory role when Harry Roy succeeded Clifton Gates as Kakoy.

Harry Roy was known affectionately as The Mad Kakoy. There is no suggestion that he was insane, but he was prolifically eccentric. During his childhood visits he was indistinguishable from the poorer urchins of the quayside. In adult life he usually went about in the garb of a common labourer, and would, unsolicited, carry out various manual jobs around the island. Chimney sweeping was his favourite occupation. On other occasions he would assume the role of 'Lady Harriet' .
Paradoxically he was a great admirer of Lenin, and believed that the island should embrace communism. In the Kakoy household he treated his staff as his equals and insisted on doing his share of the domestic chores.
A keen smoker, Harry Roy promoted the growth of tobacco on the island.
He died at the age of 39, unmarried and without children.
It is commonly believed that he died as the result of a blow to the head received from a cricket ball some weeks before he was found dead in his bathtub.

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.

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.

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 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.

Palmerston Asylum / Hospital for The Insane.

The Hospital c 1970

One positive thing about Brougham  Sleight was that he always kept an eye on developments in Britain, Europe and The USA, and was surprisingly progressive in his ambitions to elevate Tamba- Tamba in the world order.

Often the Council were able to dissuade him from pursuing more ruinous ventures. He repeatedly wrote to the British Government proposing an undersea telegraph line to Tamba- Tamba, he also proposed introducing railways to the island (which would have been completely unnecessary) and privately introduced coal-mining to Gough's Hump (no coal was found).  

One area in which his keenness for progress bore fruit was in the care of the insane.
In 1858 one of Brougham's employees began to exhibit increasingly strange behaviour.
Jenkin Hobbs was a 45 year old bachelor who had come to Tamba- Tamba as part of a group of a  dozen or so workers from Brougham's Dorset estates. Hobbs, along with most of his countrymen, had stayed on after the English withdrawal.
The Council debated how best to manage Hobbs' ever more outrageous behaviour. Sir Brougham had recently read in The Times (he still received regular packages of English newspapers) about developments in the wake of the 1853 County Asylum Acts. He proposed that Tamba- Tamba needed 'a purpose built establishment in which Lunatics could be housed securely for their protection and the protection of others. The asylum would also provide an environment in which the insane , through firm but kind and patient management , could gradually be returned to a state of health and usefulness'. (Record of Council meeting Dec. 10th 1858).
The Council agreed in principle, but it was felt that to build an asylum would be rather extravagant. It was, however, decided that Hobbs required  careful management in a secure environment.
At the time Hobbs was 'living wild' in the wooded slopes of Gough's Hump, frequently terrorising goatherds. A posse was sent to bring him under control.
 He was placed under constant supervision in an outhouse on the outskirts of Palmerston. These arrangements were a perfect illustration of the mutual cooperation on which Tamba- Tamba society was founded.
Brougham wrote to England for textbooks on psychiatry. He also wrote to the medical superintendent of The Dorset County Asylum for advice.
Six months later Hobbs showed no sign of improvement. Having read about the role that environment played in the recovery of ones senses, Brougham proposed moving Hobbs from the outhouse into more salubrious accommodation. It was then that The Palmerston Asylum For The Insane was built.
18 metres square, the stone building contained an attendants booth, a cell for the inmate and an earth closet. It was ceremonially opened on March 1st 1860.
Ironically Hobbs absconded whilst he was transferred there, and fatally threw himself into the sea.
It was another 30 years before the Asylum  was used again.

Kelly squatting on the roof of the hospital, c 1905.

Berris Howard was born in Palmerston in 1830. He was considered 'mentally infirm', but lived a generally uneventful life. In 1890 he attracted the attention of the remarkable John Kelly. Kelly, who was born in Ireland c 1845, had spent many years in the Australian gold fields. It is unclear what brought him to Tamba- Tamba, although the Council recognised him as a man of considerable learning. When he approached Brougham about Berris Howard's condition the old Kakoy's passion for progressiveness was rekindled. At this time Howard was effectively dependent on the charity of others. His mental confusion appeared to be increasing with age, and he would frequently cause alarm in the streets of Palmerston at night with his raucous wandering. It was his firm belief that the island was under attack from the sky, and he would wail in a most pitiful manner.
Seemingly having little else to occupy his attentions, Kelly asked the Council that he be allowed to take control of Howard. He believed that with the correct diet and limited stimulation he could relieve some of Howard's suffering.
So, in April 1890 the Asylum was reopened (without ceremony) and Howard was delivered into Kelly's care.

Berris Howard in the yard of the hospital, c 1905.

Kelly kept detailed records of his dealings with Howard and reported regularly to the Council.  He ordered the latest available books on the care of the insane.  For 16 years, up until Howard's death, the men were constant companions, and they could be seen on a daily basis taking long walks around the island. Howard was also usefully employed for the first time in his life as a shoemender, working under Kelly's supervision.He was still 'prone to bouts of intense fear, believing that some unidentified enemy was about to rain destruction on the town' but Kelly's measured reassurances minimized the hullabaloo.

When Howard died in 1906 Kelly concluded that it was his companionship and attention that had benefited his charge. He could not say with conviction that any scientific aspect of his dealings with Howard had helped him, but rather 'the fundamentals of  meaningful human contact'. 

Kelly continued to study mental disorders and their  treatment up until his death in 1910 , and  although the Hospital was technically open for admissions up until the opening of the Cottage Hospital in 1938 (in which a rarely used room was available for the accommodation of mental cases), it was never utilized again. When individuals presented with some mental disorder the Council usually recommended that the community take responsibility for providing the kind of support that Kelly had advocated.

During the Kakoyship of Harry Roy mental disease was a highly sensitive topic, although doctors on the island were able to employ modern approaches to the best of their abilities.

The building stood until the mid 1980's when it was completely demolished by a runaway lorry.

Hardcastle StJohn - Cox, Tamba- Tamba's last asylum patient.

The last person to be detained in the facility at the Cottage Hospital was Hardcastle StJohn - Cox. He was admitted to the hospital in 1959 with a diagnosis of unmanageable schizophrenia and lived there until 1993 when he was released into the community.
Nowadays enlightened modern services for people with mental health needs are provided from the Peoples Clinic For Health and Wellbeing.

Sport at Tamba- Tamba: 9.94 Seconds

At the 100 metres final at the Los Angeles Olympics on August 4^th 1984, American Carl Lewis comfortably collected the gold medal with a time of 9.99 secs. This was .02 slower than Lewis’ personal best, recorded at Modesto, USA May 14^th 1984, and .03 slower than Mel Lattany’s world record [1] clocked in Athens, Georgia, USA May 5^th 1984.
In this context consider these two times which were achieved by Palmerston’s Johnson Cox.
9.96 - June 1^st 1983 The May 15th Stadium, Palmerston, PROTT
9.94 – August 11^th 1984 The May 15th Stadium, Palmerston, PROTT


Johnson Cox was born in the Cocktown Square district of Palmerston in August 1963. He was a good scholar and noted to be an all round sportsman, enjoying cricket, football and sevens. At the Palmerston High School Sports Gala in June 1981 he won the 100 meters in ‘a shade over ten seconds’.[2]

This astonishing feat led to the People’s Council taking a special interest in young Johnson. Charles Berry, (the islands greatest sprinter of what is now known as the pre Cox period) was given responsibility for mentoring him on a full time basis. Johnson was excused from his new job at The Glorious May Shellfish Plant in order to focus on his training.

The Peoples’ Council made unsuccessful overtures to both the United States and The Soviet Union in order to secure training scholarships or placements for Johnson. Help eventually arrived in the form of Cuban sprint legend Hermes Ramírez, who moved to Tamba- Tamba to supervise Johnson’s progress.

When in June 1983 Johnson clocked 9.96 At The May 15th Stadium, beating Carl Lewis’ world record time, Tamba- Tamba began to dream of Olympic glory. The process of gaining recognition from the IOC was well underway.

When told that the record time was not being internationally recognised Johnson Cox shrugged and said: It’s no worry. I can do it again. I can do it in Los Angeles next year with the whole world watching. Maybe they’ll accept it then.

The deterioration in international relations with the USA led to The Peoples Council announcing that they would be boycotting the Los Angeles games. The announcement was made on May 11^th  1984.

Just a week before Mel Lattany of the USA had equalled Cox’s time at Athens, Georgia.

On August 11^th 1984 Cox ran in a special event at The May 15th Stadium. The most sophisticated timing equipment available was loaned by Cuba, the track was relaid on the model of the Moscow 1980 Olympic surface, and two stars of the 1980 Olympics were in the field , Silvio Leonard of Cuba and Alex Aksinin of the Soviet Union. Dick Francis personally invited representatives of both the IAAF and the IOC to attend the event on an expenses paid basis, but his generous hospitality was shunned.
Cox won the race with a new record time of 9.94 seconds.
The record (spitefully but unsurprisingly) was not recognised.
In September 1984 Cox travelled to London to take part in an invitation meet at The Crystal Palace. Lewis and Lattany both withdrew from the competition and the anticipated showdown never took place. Cox won the race in 9.98 secs, with Canada's Benjamin Johnson in second.
The public now began to demand a Lewis /Cox head to head.
Cox returned to Tamba- Tamba and damaged his knee playing sevens in November 1984. That was the end of his career and it was twenty years before Tamba- Tamba produced another world class athlete.
 Johnson Cox , Hero of Tamba- Tamba, Master of Sport, continues to be involved in community sports. He has also had a moderately successful spell as coach of Workers FC.

---

[1] Jim Hines’ 9.95 in the 1968 Olympics was achieved at high altitude

[2] Palmerston Newsletter, July 1981 edition.

A History of the Island of Tamba- Tamba

Jefferson Stock

Jefferson Stock (1830- 1900) was the grandson of Dreadful mutineer John Stock and the half- brother of the artist John Jackson Stock.

In 1879, the 25th anniversary of 'independence' he presented Brougham Kakoy with the manuscript of his A History of the Island of Tamba- Tamba, which he had worked on intermittently for almost 30 years.
Though not a bookish man, Brougham Kakoy made arrangements to have Stock's work published in London. Only a handful of copies are known to survive.
The book is a curious blend of documentary, gossip and fantasy.
Here leading historian Gregory Rowley guides us through Stock's remarkable opus:

I grew up with Stock's book, and revisiting it is like returning to the Tamba- Tamba of my childhood.
The first part of the History is pure fantasy- Stock writes at length about the archipelago in some vague prehistorical times. 
The second part, which again is largely romantic speculation, deals with Caetano do Tristao, although Stock also asserts that Magellan stayed at Tamba- Tamba (Pigafetta makes no mention of this).
An element of historical accuracy creeps into the book as we arrive at the history of HMS Dreadful, and Stock prefaces this episode with an unlikely  biography of his grandfather.
The records of HMS Dreadful show Stock's place of birth as being Liverpool. Jefferson Stock tells us that his grandfather was born in the forests of Equatorial Africa and was captured as a slave and taken to Dahomey when a young boy. He then has him working as a house slave in a number of great English estates and attending to such luminaries as King George III, The Prince of Wales,Edmund Burke and Lord North.
Take into account that when the Dreadful sailed on her fateful voyage that Stock was still only 18.
Jefferson Stock's account of the mutiny and the settlement of Tamba- Tamba are far more dramatic than the contemporary accounts of Thomas Cock (to whom Stock refers as 'Cox') and Bould.
He has Mr Jeffries effectively being driven from the island by the more libertarian minded mutineers. He places his grandfather at the centre of this action.
Stock relates the French bombardment and landing as being successfully repelled by the islanders (he is rather vague as to how they accomplished this and again gives his grandfather a prominent role). In defiance of the contemporary evidence the British annexation is treated as a wholly separate affair, an opportunist venture carried out by Lt Dixon.
Stocks account of the imperial era is geared towards portraying the early governors as being inferior to Brougham Sleight, and his account here is more a series of brief notes on everyday occurrences rather than a cohesive political history of the period. 
The two exceptions are the Slave Revolt, which he describes as a heroic action inspired by the humanitarianism of the islanders, and the San Luisitano incident, which is shown as an assertion of autonomous strength by a Sleight led group who had long sought independence.
Stock's book was published by Rosewater & Weekes (1881) and was largely overlooked in England, although Robert Louis Stevenson is known to have owned a copy.
Working as an elementary school master at Palmerston, he enjoyed the patronage of Brougham Kakoy and produced two further, unpublished manuscripts that survive in the Archive of PROTT Academy:  Kakoy: Being The Life of Sir Brougham Sleight and The Legacy of Literacy at Tamba- Tamba.

Heroes of The Revolution

Eddie 'Clay' Stock - Heroic Martyr of the Revolution.

Citizen Eddie Stock (1940-1979) was killed in a gun battle with the forces of the oppressor-Captain Hastings Kono Kono, May 14th. 1979.
He was posthumously awarded the title  Heroic Martyr of the Revolution, the sole recipient of this honour.

October 16th 2010 marks Eddie Stock's 70th birthday.
To celebrate this occasion there will be a memorial carnival, followed by a rally and concert at The May 15th Stadium.

The Greatest Living Tamba- Tambaman 2009

To mark 30 years of The Revolution the Voice of The People media group launched a The Greatest Living Tamba- Tambaman* award. All citizens over the age of 16 and residents over the age of 18 were obliged to vote.The  Voice of The People produced a shortlist of 8 candidates from whom the choice would be made.
The candidates were:

  

Johnson Cox - athlete and community worker

Dick Francis, Father of The Peoples Republic of Tamba- Tamba.

Orlando Hooper- Tamba- Tamba's oldest man

Miss Evaline Howard, taught at Palmerston High for 52 years

 Rocky Johnson- wrestler and father of movie star Duane 'The Rock' Johnson

Christina Rowley- 'supermodel'

 

Donald Rowley- writer

Marco Stock- footballer

The winner was Dick Francis, with 99% of the votes.This merely confirmed the esteem, gratitude and love  which the people of Tamba- Tamba naturally feel for The Father of The Peoples Republic.

*Tamba- Tambaman is the accepted term for citizens of the island regardless of gender.