A cruise ship trip to St. Maarten enabled Arthur Allen, who produced the first topographic maps of Anguilla 52 years ago, on which most of the current survey work for other maps is based, to visit the island on Tuesday this week.

Mr. Connor, Mr & Mrs Allen and Mr. Foster Rogers

“In 1957 we came here from St. Kitts to make the first topographic maps of the island when Maloney was the Warden here,” Mr. Allen recalled. “We were very well looked after by Wallace Rey, then in charge of the Public Works Department. There were also Victor Banks, the Agricultural Officer, Richard Canning, the Anglican Priest, and Trapl, the German doctor serving on the island at the time. We had to ship our land rovers ashore at Sandy Ground and we flew in on a Piper Attache.”

He went on: “The maps, done then on behalf of the British Government, covered all of Anguilla’s territory, including its offshore cays. The triangulation for all the land registration… was based on the coordinated positions of all the points…We had to fix the island’s points by astronomical observations. We did this at [Crocus Hill], the highest part of the island. This was before GPS or satellite facilities.”

Asked whether he had ever returned to Anguilla, Allen said: “I have only been back here in my memories. It is 52 years since I have set foot on the island.”

After leaving Anguilla he was posted to Kenya by the British Government to undertake other surveys. He later went into teaching at the Northeast London Polytechnic and subsequently at University College, London and together with two other persons he wrote a textbook on surveying.

“This is our Golden Wedding Year,” he said, motioning to his wife, Daphne, a banker. “We decided to break open the piggy bank and come on a cruise.”
Asked what he thought of Anguilla compared to those old years of the 1950s, he remarked: “I am very impressed. I did learn something about what the island is like because of your website and I am glad it hasn’t been spoiled like some other islands.”
Mr. Allen and his wife were accompanied to The Anguillian by Permanent Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, Foster Rogers, and Director of Lands and Surveys, Gifford Connor, to tell his story of Anguilla. “I am glad I had the chance to come over here to see the island on this whistle stop before I pass on to the other world,” he chuckled, as he hurried away to catch the cruise ship in St. Maarten.

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