The British colony of Saint Helena is a mountainous volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) from the coast of Africa, with two dependencies: Ascension Island and the Tristan da Cunha Islands.

"Taken from World Reference Atlas. Copyright Dorling Kindersley".

Saint Helena has an area of 122 sq km (47 sq mi) and a population of 5,700 (1992). Jamestown is its capital and only port.

Fringed by steep cliffs on all sides except the north, the island rises to 818 m (2,685 ft) on Mount Actaeon. The population is ethnically mixed, but English is the only language spoken. Subsistence farming and lace and flax-fiber making form the basis of the economy. The island also receives subsidies from the United Kingdom. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, Saint Helena was captured and settled by the British in 1659. Napoleon I was exiled on the island in 1815 and remained there until his death, in 1821.  

 

 
 
St Helena
Interesting Details

 

  • Mail service is through the "RMS St Helena", delivered either to Cape Town or the Ascension Island for further transport. A letter can take anything from one week to one month, depending on coordination with the boat.
  • The population of Tristan Da Cunha, a dependency of St Helena, in 1948 was 204. 18,000 of each value up to the 1/- and 6,000 of the top three values were overprinted in 1951. That’s just over 88 letters each using the 3p Value.
  • The island of St Helena is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1950 kms from the southwest coast of Africa and 2900 kms east of South America. Its closest neighbour is Ascension Island, situated 1100 kms to the Northwest.
  • The St Helenians (referred to as "Saints" by themselves) are of mixed origin, being descended from British settlers sent out by the East India Company and from many company employees and slaves from the South Asian sub-continent, the East Indies and Madagascar as well as a small number of Chinese and Africans.
  • The first local post on the island was not until 4th January 1965 and was commemorated by the overprinting of four definitive stamps from that period.
  • It is mentioned that the sheets were interleaved with wax paper to stop adhesion between the sheets. This practice seems to have ceased for the Queen Elizabeth definitives and replaced by french chalk to prevent this adhesion.
  • The Island of Ascension is a dependency of St Helena, and during the reign of George VI special issues were issued on the requisition for St Helena. Also in 1940 Ascension the 1d and 3d definitives had the same colour changes as St Helena. It also issued a new 4d duty but not an 8d