Captain James Cook discovered the southern eight islands of the Sandwich Islands Group in 1775, although he lumped the southernmost three together, and their status as separate islands was not established until 1820 by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. The northern three islands were discovered by Bellingshausen in 1819. The islands were tentatively named Sandwich Land by Cook, although he also commented that they might be a group of islands rather than a single body of land. The name was chosen in honour of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. The word “South” was later added to distinguish them from the Sandwich Islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands.
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.
Argentina claimed the South Sandwich Islands in 1938, and challenged British sovereignty in the Islands on several occasions. From 25 January 1955 to mid-1956, Argentina maintained the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the southeastern coast of Thule Island.
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. Argentina maintained a naval base from 1976 to 1982, in the lee of the same island. Although the British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1976, they protested and tried to resolve the issue by diplomatic means, no effort was made to remove them by force until after the Falklands War. The base was removed on 20 June 1982.
In 1985 the Dependencies became the distinct British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
