Brian Wilde
This is the story of a 21yr. old working man who went to the Falkland Islands to work on a sheep farm long before the late Falkland Islands War.
It tells of life as it was in the 1950s on a sheep farming settlement on the West Falklands far away from the hustle and bustle of life as we know it today. A world much smaller than ours of today, where life was much harder, more caring, more generous and could be tragic with the turn of the weather.
It gives a real life insight to readers as to the way that life was lived in those very remote Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean
Brian Wilde
was born in Fratton Portsmouth UK.
in 1934.
Brian was
evacuated at the out break of the Second World War, first to the Isle
of Wight and then to Gomshall in Surrey.
On
returning to Portsmouth
after the war was over Brian finished his schooling and then after having had
several different jobs decided to take
up the offer of a five year contract to
work on a sheep farm in the Falkland Islands,
hence the writing of this book.
On Brian’s
return from the Falkland Islands
in 1969 he then gained employment as a maintenance handyman on a large Farming
estate in Clanfield Hampshire owned by Sir Lynton White.
He worked
there for almost thirty years until his retirement in 1999.
Excerpt from To the Falklands
at the Toss of a Coin
As the winter was now starting to set in it was time to start cutting
tussock to feed the farm cows. The tussock grass was quite rich and the cows
enjoyed their morning feed. When the gang turned to in the mornings, the first
job before breakfast was to put the long blades of tussock through a chaff
cutter, each man taking in turns to turn the wheel. The sacks of chaff would
then be carried up to the cow yard and emptied into boxes for the cows to eat.
One of the good things about Fox Bay East was that we always had plenty of milk
and cream and, of course, the women could also make butter.
After seeing that the cows had been fed and having a break for breakfast, it
would be back to work. All the gang, clad in oilskins with knife and steel in
their belts, would then set about lowering the dinghy from the davits on the
jetty. The pram would then be launched from its usual place where it was
berthed in front of the carpenters shop doors, the pram being a flat bottomed
boat and rather heavy was always pulled up after use using an old hand winch, which
stood permently in position. Mike and five of the gang would then be rowed out
to the big boat which was always moored to a buoy about fifty yards from the
beach. The big boat was an old lifeboat that, it was said came off of one of
the old sailing ships that was wrecked on the Islands.
It was in pretty good condition for its age. It was about twenty five foot long
and required a crew of five with a man on the tiller.
Mike the foreman, usually the man at the helm. When leaving the tussock island
after a mornings cutting, the stern of the big boat would be stacked high with
bundles of tussock, leaving just enough room for three pullers to row the boat
back to the farm jetty.
