South Georgia is an island in the southern Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, and was named Roche Island on a number of early maps. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756.
In 1909, an administrative centre and residence were established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken. A permanent local British administration and resident magistrate exercised effective possession, enforcement of British law, and regulation of all economic, scientific, and other activities in the territory, which was then governed as the Falkland Islands Dependencies.
In 1962 the British Antarctic Territory was formed and left only South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands as Falkland Islands Dependencies between 1962 and 1985. In 1985 the Dependencies became the distinct British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Websites
YouTube
- Caledonian Philatelic Society: South Georgia Postal History – the First 100 Years
- Royal Philatelic Society London: South Georgia Postal History
