The Tristan Da Cunha Connection

Dr Thomas Henry Braim was vicar of St Michael’s Church here in Ilsington (my home village) from 1875 to 1879. He had graduated from St John’s, Cambridge in 1835 and accepted a post in, what was then, Van Deiman’s Land – subsequently Tasmania. On his way out the ship called at Tristan da Cunha to get fresh supplies of “pigs, poultry, eggs, vegetables and milk”. Dr Braim went ashore with the Captain and some of the crew and were met by Governor Glass and his wife and where he met the school master who also acted as Chaplain who gratefully accepted fresh sermons from the young graduate! Whilst there, the ship came adrift and nearly smashed on the rocks – getting so close that “you could have thrown a biscuit onto land!” 

Twelve years later, by coincidence, Dr Braim was in Sydney and invited to a dinner to celebrate the arrival of a yacht on a cruise from England. In conversation he discovered that they, too, had stopped off at Tristan da Cunha and this happened to be the day that Governor Glass’ wife had given birth to a daughter. In the celebrations that followed that included a thanksgiving service, a very well-thumbed book of sermons appeared – those written by the young Cambridge graduate and gifted years before! 

Dr Braim and his growing family spent over 30 years “in the colonies of Australia”, where he built a church and school in Port Fairy, Victoria.  

The next coincidence is that UK Sire Services exported semen from Angus, Hereford, Red Poll (progeny of which is pictured in the Blog listing) and Welsh Black bulls to the island in 2016 and we will be working with them again soon I hope. The Angus bull, Gear Blue Moon was bred by good friend Mark Pilcher of Zennor in Cornwall. Mark is a son of the famous author Rosamunde Pilcher. 

Dr Braim is my great, great grandfather.