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 1894 it was deemed essential that West Falkland should be placed under the supervision of an independent officer. In 1895 an Ordinance was passed to provide for the appointment of a ‘Stipendiary Magistrate for the Island of West Falkland’. The first Stipendiary Magistrate and Deputy Collector of Customs for West Falkland appointed was Mr George Hurst, chief Constable of the Falkland Islands since 1885. He assumed his duties towards the end of 1895.   In 1896 Government Quarters were built (at a cost of £243-16-5) at Fox Bay East to house the Stipendiary Magistrate and police.

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. The Stipendiary Magistrate was also ex officio collector of customs, an effort to get proper control over possible smuggling. In 1899 he also became Postmaster when Fox Bay Post office opened. 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.  Other matters such as dealing with the problems the two itinerant teachers, responsible for teaching 60 children across West Falkland, were experiencing also were dealt with firstly at Fox Bay. In 1899 running a sub-Post Office was added to his duties as 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. Mr Kirwan was appointed in 1914. 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. The Wireless Station also housed large generators which provided 24 hour electricity (DC), a luxury that no other settlements enjoyed. Another duty was to work the small meteorological station. 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 (Marnon House) on the hill above ‘Doctor’s Creek’ at the head of the creek which was later moved to be within the Government paddock (1930's) when the Government assumed responsibilty, previously provided by the West Falkland farmers, for the doctor. 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.

Original Houses/ structures in the Government Paddock

Constables/caretaker's house	Magistrate/ Post Office	Doctor's House
Met Station	The Wireless Station	West travelling teachers

Sources include: Old records at Fox Bay East Post Office, Report on the Blue Book for 1888/89, Unspoilt Beauty of the Falkland Islands -Algernon Asprey text by Phyllis Rendall, Falkland Rural Heritage- Marnon House/Sally Blake/Joan Spruce with Natalie Smith, nationalarchives.gov.fk/Jane Cameron National Archives /Buildings/ Land/General/Early leases of land post 1842, nationalarchives.gov.fk/Jane Cameron National Archives /People/19century families, The Dictionary of Falklands Biography (including South Georgia) - Edited by David Tatham,

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Photographic credits: Header: Charles Maddocks

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