Icons of St Helena

Images that make you think immediately of St Helena

Greta Garbo … was a Swedish born actress and Hollywood icon.{e}

What is an Icon of St Helena?

The term ‘Icon’ is an old religious term for the image of a Saint or other significant person (see en.wikipedia.org/‌wiki/‌Icon), but recently the term has become used in a more diverse way. The quote at the top of this page is an example. So before we discuss what the Icons of St Helena are, we first must define what makes something an ‘Icon’.

For the porposes of this page we define ‘icons’ as images that, when you see them, make you think immediately of St Helena and nowhere else.

This is not a perfect definition and, as you can see in our Read More section (below) is not 100% compatible with all modern usage, but it will do for the purposes of this page.

PLEASE NOTE: Icons of St Helena are not (necessarily) the same as National Symbols.

Our proposed Icons of St Helena

We think the Icons of St Helena currently are (in alphabetic order):

Below: Arch of The Castle Heart Shaped Waterfall High Knoll Fort Jacob’s Ladder Jonathan the tortoise Wirebird

The Arch of The Castle

The Castle itself is an unremarkable building but its Arch is the visual focus and where every visiting dignitary emerges waving during their official visit (examples below), which propels it to icon status.

The Heart Shaped Waterfall

As far as we know it is the only Heart Shaped Waterfall on the planet. If that doesn’t make it one of the Icons of St Helena…

High Knoll Fort

A unique symbol of 19th Century British military power, it is a recognisable structure and, as far as we know, unique in the world in shape and environment.

Jacob’s Ladder

Not unique in the world - there are other entities called Jacob’s Ladder and even some phenomena, but ours is arguably the best known structure in the world carrying the name and its image is instantly recognisable. It is frequently described in Our Newspapers and other documents as iconic.

Jonathan the tortoise

His position as the oldest land animal on the planet gives him undoubted icon status. He is frequently described in Our Newspapers and other documents as iconic.

The Wirebird

While not biologically or ecologically significant in the global scheme of things, The Wirebird has, mostly because of its endangered status, gained worldwide recognition, making it globally recognisable and hence qualifying it to be one of the Icons of St Helena.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.{f}

Former Icons of St Helena?

We think the following might have been Icons of St Helena in the past, but history has moved on…

• RMS St Helena (1990-2018): This may prove controversial! To anyone who remembers the RMS St Helena (1990-2018) it would undoubtedly be considered an Icons of St Helena, but it last served the island years ago in 2018 and is unlikely ever to return{1}. If you were born after about 2015 it is very unlikely you will remember having ever seen the RMS St Helena (1990-2018) in James Bay, and most tourists who have only come to know St Helena since the start of the scheduled commercial air service will have only a dim idea of what the RMS St Helena (1990-2018) was and its significance for the island. It will and should be remembered fondly by those who do but we believe it does not any longer qualify as one of the Icons of St Helena.

• The Rockfall Memorial Fountain: Clearly significant to those who remembered the 1890 rockfall that it commemorated, so probably one of the Icons of St Helena in its time, but none of these people are still alive and by the 1940s the island had moved on; when it needed major refurbishment or replacement it was - apparently - scrapped.

• St. James’ Church: In the days when ‘Church’ was an essential component of island life, St. James’ Church, arguably the most attractive of our churches, would probably have been considered one of the Icons of St Helena. Nowadays, is it perhaps more of a historical artifact? We think anyone seeing a picture of this not-extraordinary building would probably think nice old church but be unlikely to associate it with St Helena. Ditto for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

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  The ship-and-rocks image (inner right) was originally designed{2} for the 1922-1937 King George V postage stamps (outer right). It was, in its time, considered so iconic it was incorporated into Our Flag. But when something similar was proposed for the new airport logo it was widely derided as being out-of-date - Why is an old sailing-ship image being used for a 21st Century airport? It has probably served its time.

• The Arch is sometimes described as iconic but we think that description relates to the pre-2018 days when all visitors arrived at the Jamestown Wharf and travelled through The Arch to get into town and the island beyond. These days relatively few people arrive that way: ‘Yachties’ do, and occasionally Cruise Ship passengers, though they are nowadays mostly unloaded at the new jetty in Ruperts, but nobody else. So we think, like the RMS St Helena(above) it does not any longer qualify as one of the Icons of St Helena.

• We have seen the endemic Giant Earwig described as iconic, and it certainly was remarkable, but as it has not been seen since 1968 ( years ago) and was declared extinct in August 2014, it probably no longer qualifies as one of the Icons of St Helena.

Other images we discounted

Some of the following were suggested to us. Although they are all important, we do not believe they qualify to be one of the Icons of St Helena.

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  You may be surprised that we have not previously mentioned Napoleon. While the fact that he was exiled and died here may be the reason many people come to learn about St Helena, it must be remembered that we are only a small part of his story (six years from 51; around 12%) with almost all of his achievements coming long before he arrived here, and he is only a small part of ours (six years in our year history; about 1%).

• For similar reasons we have not included Longwood House - it’s just a Georgian farmhouse. Had Napoleon not stayed there it would not be notable, as also would not be The Briars Pavilion.

• Our local language ‘Saint’, while distinctive, does not qualify because a language is not an image.

• Whale Sharks, Donkeys, Fishcakes, and our other food and Lace Making are all important parts of the St Helena experience, but are not images per-se{3} and are not particular to St Helena so we believe they do not qualify to be one of the Icons of St Helena.

• Our National Flower would arguably be iconic if it wasn’t just a plain white five-petalled flower. If you did not know that you were seeing the St Helena National Flower you would not identify it. We therefore submit that it does not qualify to be one of the Icons of St Helena.

• Plantation House is certainly an important building on St Helena with an interesting history, but as a nice but fairly unremarkable colonial building that - looking at it - could be anywhere we don’t think it qualifies as one of the Icons of St Helena.

Official symbols

You may have noticed that none of our official symbols - Our Flag, Our Coat of Arms, Our Public Seal, Our Official Crest and the Notes and Coins of St Helena - have been selected as Icons of St Helena. This is because we believe the images that become the Icons of St Helena are about what trigger people’s reactions and memories and are created by public perception and acclaim; they are not about designated official symbols imposed on us.

On Google™

If you do a Google Search for icons of St Helena you are presented exclusively with religious icons depicting the Saint after whom the island is named, using the more traditional meaning of ‘icon’.

Maybe one day Google™ may also respond to this query by returning a link to this page…☺

Read More

Other uses of ‘Icon’

Below: Article: To Be Sold & Let - Slaves: Reclaiming an Icon of St Helena’s Shameful Past Article: A Drizzly but Warm Farewell to a St Helena Icon - Nick Thorpe

Article: To Be Sold & Let - Slaves: Reclaiming an Icon of St Helena’s Shameful Past

By Alexander Schulenburg, published in ‘Wirebird’, the magazine of Friends of St Helena{4} #32, Spring 2006

The article begins:

Arguably the most iconic and most widely known item of St Helena ephemera is a public notice advertising the sale of slaves and other ‘goods’ on 8th May 1829.

The rest of the article, while interesting, is irrelevant to this page. What is of interest is the use of the term Icon of St Helena’s Shameful Past and iconic to describe the notice (reproduced below). If this is one of the Icons of St Helena, we don’t see how - there is no St Helena image and the notice does not even once mention St Helena. This is not how we have used the term ‘icon’ for the purposes of this page!

Article: A Drizzly but Warm Farewell to a St Helena Icon - Nick Thorpe

Published in The Independent, 12th August 2022

Again the detail of the article is irrelevant to this page (you can read on this site about Nick Thorpe). Our query is whether a person can be an icon when anybody who has never had contact with St Helena (and probably a few who have) would not be able to recognise him from his picture and identify the island to which he contributed so much? This, again, is not how we have used the term ‘icon’ for the purposes of this page!