It wasn’t always this way
Life on Tristan used to follow a slower rhythm. Up until the late 1930s, people worked when the weather and seasons demanded it. There was no electricity, no cash economy and few outside goods. Food was grown, caught and shared. Labor was communal.
Sidney Glass (from left), Andrew Glass and George Swain with bullock carts pulled by two oxen each. For most of Tristan’s history, this was the island’s primary form of transport, alongside the use of donkeys. Photograph taken by Alfred Saunders during the RRS Discovery II’s 1933 visit to Tristan da Cunha. Credit: Tristan da Cunha Archive
That began to change during World War II, when the British government built a secret naval weather and radio station on the island. Soldiers arrived, concrete buildings went up and, for the first time, islanders were paid wages. With money came generators and electricity. Then, in 1949, the launch of a commercial lobster fishery introduced a new, regular income stream, and regular shipping schedules further sped up the pace of life.
British soldiers stationed on Tristan pose for a photo taken by an unknown photographer in the early 1940s, during World War II. The image dates from the period when the island was secretly designated HMS Atlantic Isle and a covert weather station was established, bringing cash wages, electricity and unprecedented contact with the outside world to the island’s community. Credit: Tristan da Cunha Archive