Postcards of St Helena

Old…and older

Judge: Did you or did you not sleep with this woman? Co-respondent: Not a wink, my lord!
Postcard by Donald McGill

St Helena has never had a large tourist industry, but it has always had plenty of postcards.

The following is a collection of Postcards of St Helena, from various sources. As much information as we have been able to ascertain is provided with each.

If you can help us further identify and/or date any of these postcards, please contact us. You may also be interested in our Postage Stamps page.

Below: Jamestown • Napoleon • Jacob’s Ladder • Sandy Bay • Boer Prisoners • Heart-Shaped Waterfall • General • Postcard Collectors • Read More

Jamestown

Lower Jamestown from Shy Road, prob. late 19thC, in Dutch

St. James’ Church & Grand Parade, prob. late 19thC, in Dutch

Jamestown street, prob. late 19thC, in Dutch

Jamestown, late 19th C
Jamestown, late 19thC

Jamestown, from the bay, prob. early 20thC

Castle Gardens, prob. early 20thC

Main Street, Jamestown, prob. early 20thC

Cenotaph and Wharf, prob. early 20thC

Jamestown from the top of Jacob’s Ladder, prob. early 20thC

Jamestown, from the anchorage, prob. early 20thC

Jamestown, looking South, prob. early 20thC

Lower Jamestown from Mundens, prob. early 20thC

Upper Jamestown, from Barnes Road(?), prob. early 20thC

Entrance to The Castle, prob. early 20thC; very little has changed!

Jamestown, 1905 by Thomas Jackson{a}

Jamestown, from The Briars, 1949

Upper Jamestown, middle 20thC

Jamestown street scene, 1979

Jamestown street scene, possibly 1980s or 1990s{1}

‘The most extraordinary place’, 2011{b}

Jamestown at night, with RMS St Helena, 2011
Jamestown at night, with ~~RMS St Helena~~, 2011{b}

Napoleon

Napoleon’s Funeral, prob. 19thC; not geographically accurate

Longwood Avenue, showing Longwood House, prob. 19thC

Napoleon and child, prob. 19thC{2}

Longwood House and views, prob. early 20thC

Longwood House, prob. early 20thC

Napoleon’s Tomb, prob. early 20thC

Longwood House, French, early 20thC

‘Napoleon et son epoque’, French, early 20thC

Believed to be the commemoration of 100 years since Napoleon’s death, May 1921

Longwood House, Jarrold & Sons, Norwich

Jacob’s Ladder

Jamestown from the top of Jacob’s Ladder, prob. early 20thC

Jacob’s Ladder, prob. early 20thC

Jacob’s Ladder, prob. middle 20thC

Sandy Bay

Sandy Bay valley, prob. 19thC

Sandy Bay & the Lots, prob. early 20thC; note the drying Flax (left)

Flax Mill, Sandy Bay, prob. middle 20thC

Sandy Bay, prob. late 20thC; note the cropped flax plants

Boer Prisoners

Arrival of the Boer Prisoners (1900-1902), presumably 1900, but dated 1904

Washday at the Boer camp, Dutch, 1900-1902

Deadwood Camp housing Boer Prisoners (1900-1902), 1901

Boers departure, presumably 1902 but posted October 1903

Map, showing the Boer camp locations, 1902{3}

Heart-Shaped Waterfall

The Heart Shaped Waterfall, prob. early 20thC

The Heart Shaped Waterfall from above, prob. early 20thC; note the drying Flax (back)

General

Scenes of St Helena, dated 1880

Mundens, from Ruperts, prob. late 19thC, in Dutch

Plantation House “This is a real photo”, prob. 19thC

Cable Station, prob. early 20thC

“The Ridges”, prob. early 20thC{4}

Central island view, prob. early 20thC; the open space is Francis Plain

Various scenes, prob. early 20thC{5}

Hutts Gate, pre World War 1 {6}{a}

Saint Helena Island & Shore Island, prob. late 20thC

Saint Helena Island, prob. late 20thC{7}

Jonathan the tortoise and Plantation House, 2011{b}

Endemic Species, 2011{b}

Giant Cabbages, The Peaks, 2011{b}

2018 by Arts & Crafts{c}

Prosperous Bay, 2018

Munden's Fort

Postcard Collectors

As far as we know there are no postcard collectors or groups on St Helena (if you know otherwise please contact us). The Museum of St Helena does sell current postcards; please contact them for details.

We regret that Saint Helena Island Info does not have the resources to help with postcard exchanges.

Article: Just by Chance

By Nick Hewes, published in the St Helena Independent 24th February 2006{8}

Read, if you will, of a strange tale of the most unlikely coincidence. It concerns a postcard a friend in Yorkshire gave me about a week before my journey to St Helena, in September 2004. He’d gone to an antiques fair one weekend, and had found a postcard of the old ~~RMS St Helena~~ on one of the stalls. It was dated 1985, and had been sent from Cape Town to an address in Taunton, Somerset. After my friend gave me the card, I used it as a bookmark for a few weeks.

The first ~~RMS St Helena~~

Then, having made the journey to St Helena on the new ~~RMS~~, we moved up to Piccolo Hill, and the card was glued to the wall in a desperate attempt to brighten up the place. One day we were visited by the former Captain of the ~~RMS~~, Bob Wyatt (who we’d got to know during the long voyage from England). Upon seeing the card, he said, that’s my old ship! and promptly took the card off the wall to see who’d written it. It turned out that he actually knew the lady who had sent the card two decades previously. Strangely enough, she had travelled with us for part of the voyage to St Helena, having joined the ship on Ascension Island after flying out from Brize Norton. Sadly, her father had recently passed away, and she was sailing home to attend his funeral.

Now I’m no mathematician, but this does seem to be a crazy coincidence. Firstly, how did a postcard sent from Africa to someone in Taunton in 1985 end up, not being thrown into the bin, but instead transported 300 miles away to East Yorkshire, to be bought by someone browsing on a Saturday afternoon 20 years later? That in itself has long odds against it. What is the probability though, that the lady who sent the card 20 years previously, who has resided in Somerset ever since, would be travelling back home on the same ship as an unknown stranger who was using that very postcard to mark the page of the book he was reading? Another odd fact is that very few visitors to our house on Piccolo Hill would have had the temerity to have taken the card off the wall, as Bob Wyatt did, for the simple reason that he was once the ship’s captain, and therefore had a unique and special interest; in which case, this bizarre sequence of coincidences would have gone unnoticed for ever and ever.

The latest twist, which I discovered two weeks ago (and which lengthens the odds still further), is that my next-door-neighbour is the sister of the lady who sent the card.

If you’d read this kind of thing in a novel by Charles Dickens, you might put it down to the author’s lively poetic imagination. The fact that it really has happened though, proves that truth can occasionally be stranger than fiction.

Sis tranquillus, est iocum

Laugh at funny Postcards of St Helena humour - LOL

(Officially the world’s best selling postcard, at over 6 million{9}.)

Credits:
{a} St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Philatelic Society (SHATPS){b} Ed Thorpe{c} St Helena Arts & Crafts

Footnotes:
{1} Based on the vehicles, plus no spire on St. James’ Church.{2} We don’t understand what this image is intended to portray. It seems to be an attempt to present the man as a quiet, fatherly figure - much at odds with his actual activities.{3} Also shows the Napoleonic Sites, making it a sort-of Exiles map.{4} Note the Flax spread out to dry (bottom right).{5} The desalination plant operated in the early 1900s.{6} St. Matthew’s was rebuilt to its current form during World War 1; this shows the older version.{7} Based on the vehicles.{8} Reproduced for educational non-commercial use only; all copyrights are acknowledged.{9} : Source Wikipedia.