1966 Tristan da Cunha Garrison 150th Anniversary

On 14 August 1816, the United Kingdom annexed the islands by dispatching a garrison to secure possession, making them a dependency of the Cape Colony in South Africa. This was intended to prevent the islands’ use as a base for any attempt to free Napoleon Bonaparte from his imprisonment on Saint Helena. The occupation also deterred the United States from using Tristan da Cunha as a base for naval cruisers, as it had during the War of 1812. The garrison departed in November 1817.