Our Sister Islands

Part of our Territory

You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you.{a}

The rest of the trio

Previously the Territory of St Helena and Dependencies, when our new Constitution was adopted on 1st September 2009 the territory became known as ‘St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha’. All three islands{1} share the same Constitution, and the same Governor.

St Helena is (obviously) described in detail on this site. We do not (and have no plans to) provide equivalent sites for Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, but due to their close historic and cultural links to St Helena we do provide some basic information on each:

Ascension Island

Tristan da Cunha

The other British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic is the Falkland Islands, where many Saints work and which includes South Georgia, but which is not administratively linked to St Helena.

SEE ALSO: For some rather smaller islands, somewhat closer, see Islands.

One that got away…

Note that our assumed sister island, St Helena Nova, side-by-side with us in the South Atlantic, never actually existed!

Confusion

In April 2025, as part of his ‘reciprocal tariffs’, US President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on exports from ‘St Helena’, citing a trade imbalance in the export of ‘Crustaceans’ worth $6.2m annually. This was a bit of a surprise, because St Helena doesn’t actually have any ‘Crustaceans’ to export{2}. St Helena actually imports far more from the USA than it exports (a tiny bit of St Helena Coffee and a few Postage Stamps). However, it became quickly apparent that the ‘Crustaceans’ in question were lobsters, exported from Tristan da Cunha. Apparently, the list used by Trump’s team treated St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha as a single territory entitled ‘St Helena’.

This is a common confusion, particularly in American organisations and websites. We often see references to ‘Georgetown, St Helena’ (Georgetown is on Ascension Island) and St Helena was credited with having an airport long before ours started operating, referencing the one on Ascension Island, then a 2-3 day journey away by ship. There are some other examples on our page Do they mean us?.

In time, presumably these errors will get sorted out, but in the meantime anybody wanting to import St Helena Coffee or Postage Stamps into the USA will just have to pay the 10% import tax.

Read More

St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order

(S.I. 2009 No.1751 (UK))

(extracts)

Commencement: 1 September 2009

Revocations: The St Helena Constitution Order 1988 and the St Helena Constitution Order 1989 are revoked with effect from the appointed day.

Change of name and establishment of Constitution: From the appointed day -

1. the territory of St Helena and Dependencies shall be called St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; and

2. the Constitution shall have effect in St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in accordance with section 1 of the Constitution.

The full Constitution can be downloaded from our page Our Constitution.