Fox Bay East During the 1760’s Captain John Byron was charting a large bay on the south-east corner of West Falklands and named it for the large amount of foxes he saw, the now extinct ‘Falkland fox’ or Warrah’. Fox Bay East lies on a large deep-water bay on West Falkland opposite Fox Bay West. Once a large sheep farm belonging to Packe Brothers, Fox Bay East including its units at Dunnose Head and Packes Port Howard was bought by the Falkland Islands Government in 1983 and subdivided into smaller farming units. The Government kept the Fox Bay East settlement renaming it ‘Fox Bay Village’ and thus keeping a government presence on the West. Owners of the new faming units bought houses in the settlement and share the shearing shed and other facilities. During the 1982 conflict Fox Bay was occupied by around 900 Argentine troops and both settlements were planted with mines. Fourteen people considered undesirable by the Argentine troops in Stanley were put under house arrest at Fox Bay. British Harrier aircraft strafed and bombed the settlement and it was also bombarded by the Royal Navy. Fox Bay was liberated on 15th June 1982. One of the camp’s first all -weather tracks was constructed between Fox Bay East and Fox Bay West in the 1990s greatly improving communications between the settlements. History Captain Robert Christopher Packe arrived in the Falklands in 1851 with the intention of starting a new business in the islands. On arrival he immediately acquired leases on Fitzroy and Port Louis (East Falklands). His brother Edward arrived in 1866 and they expanded their holdings to 105,000 acres, taking out leases on West Falklands at Fox Bay East, Port Howard and Dunnose Head. On 14 March 1890 Robert Pack, Russell Henry Buckworth and Stella Goodhard formed a partnership from then on known as Packe Brothers & Co. Fox Bay East became the main settlement arm of Pack’e Brothers Co. Ltd. Dunnose Head and Packes Port Howard were smaller sections used as ewe camps in later years although at first Captain Packe ran cattle at Dunnose Head as he was involved in hunting wild cattle which provided a ready income for their hides and meat. Captain Robert Packe is credited with introducing large scale sheep farming to the Falklands. He himself remained unmarried and lived at Sulivan House, Stanley. Shepherds were brought from the UK and Fox Bay East became a successful sheep farm. While there were houses at both Packe’s Port Howard and Dunnose Head men from the main unit at Fox Bay East would travel to the smaller sections for dipping and shearing. It was a difficult station to run given its three sections. Managers included HV Cobb who preceded Howard Wickham (Wick) Clement who ran it from 1934 to 1967 and finally Richard Cockwell from1967 to 1983. The farm settlement at Fox Bay East eventually had 7 main houses including a fine manager’s house, a large cookhouse for single shepherds and navvies, a store, cinema. There was a fine woolshed and pens, a carpenters shop, cowsheds, hen runs, dog kennels and gardens. At the time of its sale Fox Bay East had two outside shepherds houses on the main Fox Bay section one at Coast Ridge and one at Little Chartres. Shepherds shanties where sheep drives could overnight on long drives from the other sections of Packes were Hawk’s Nest Shanty, Gun Hill Shanty and Blue Mountain Shanty. Fox Bay East was occupied by Argentine troops during the 1980 conflict. The Farm 1888. The settlement at Fox Bay East had three houses at the settlement and four detached shepherd’s houses. The population was 29 and that year had one birth (stillborn), two deaths from ‘phthisis’, one case of infectious disease (measles, brought from Stanley but did not spread). In June 1889 the Packe’s Port Howard house was occupied by the shepherd Donald McCaskill and his wife. There was also a ‘cookhouse’ that was only used at shearing time when men came from the Fox Bay East section, this continuing until Packe’s was subdivided. Assistant Colonial Surgeon to the Colonial secretary. In 1888 Dr Anderson, West Falkland’s first doctor, acquired by west farmers, died at Doctor’s Creek and was buried in the valley there. He was replaced by Dr Going. Assistant Colonial Surgeon to the Colonial secretary. The Government Station By 1883 Fox Bay was the Port of Entry for the handling of West Falkland imports and exports. It was apparent that West Falklands needed infrastructure to deal with public health, communications and customs. In 1895 an Ordinance was passed to provide for the appointment of a ‘Stipendiary Magistrate for the Island of West Falkland’. This law vested in the magistrate of the West Falkland Island the same powers and jurisdiction that were exercised by the Police Magistrate of the Colony, who was stationed in Stanley. It thus enabled residents on the West Island to have certain disputes summarily settled on the spot which could previously only have been decided in Stanley. Previously, since 1888, duties appertaining to customs and excise on the West had fallen upon the Assistant Colonial Surgeon whose expenses were met partly by Government and partly by contributions from the residents of the West Falklands, dividing his responsibility. In 1894 it was deemed essential that West Falklands should be placed under the supervision of an independent officer. The first Stipendiary Magistrate and Deputy Collector of Customs for West Falklands was Mr G. Hurst, appointed 1894 and he assumed his duties towards the end of that year. The Stipendiary Magistrate was also ex officio collector of customs, an effort to get proper control over possible smuggling. In 1895 a house was erected for him in the Government Paddock. In 1899 he also became Postmaster when Fox Bay Post Office opened. Mr Hurst left in 1902 and the Doctor doubled as postmaster until the arrival of John William Brown in 1911. In 1918, at the end of the First World War, a new Wireless Station was opened. Telephone lines that linked all the farms to Fox Bay enabled telegraphic contact with Stanley and the world. Telegrams were regularly sent twice a day, in Morse code. The current radio operator also did the Post Office, officiated at weddings and funerals and registered births, marriages and deaths. This continued until the 1980’s and after the 1982 conflict when new telephone systems and ultimately the internet took over. From the 1880’s until 1972 a medical officer was based at Fox Bay East, first living at a house on the hill above ‘Doctor’s Creek’ at the head of the bay and later in a house within the government station. In 1888 Dr Anderson, West Falkland’s first doctor, acquired by west farmers, died at Doctor’s Creek and was buried in the valley there. He was replaced by Dr Going. Blue Book Report 1895, Dictionary of Falklands Biography Edited by David Tatham/ Article by Sally Blake& Judith Summers/Article by Michael Stammers, Unspoilt Beauty of the Falkland Islands/ Phyllis Rendall , Jane Cameron National Archives/West Falklands/fig.gov.fk