Dinner with John Tyrell; The Man Who Broke the Story of Maldivians Who Lived in St. Helena;1735

We were all eager to meet John Tyrell, the man who enlightened us about the fate of some 10 Maldivians who were picked up from the sea in 1735 by a passing ship and later lived in a place called Maldivia in St. Helena.

John wrote in his blog article on Thursday, 14 February 2008.

'It is in Maldivia, situated in the Upper Jamestown valley. The area is named after slaves from the Maldives who worked in the gardens, then a Government Plantation, after they arrived on the island in 1735'.

The article stimulated a lot of media interest back home. Many of us wanted to know more about the story.

I wrote to John. I was definitely very interested in finding out more about what happened to these people.

After my letter to John got published in his blog, a gentleman in foreign service in the Maldivian government phoned me and provided a headway to this developing story.

According to him , a British anthropologist had contacted him in 1985 and provided information about some Maldivians who had lived in St. Helena. Unfortunately according to him this information had been lost over the years and the story had so far never been followed. He had promised to document what ever he knew about the story. He also told me that these Maldivians were really not treated as slaves but they were 'dumped on the island' but as they lived side by side with other Asians who were regarded as slaves even the Maldivians probably got labelled as slaves. I thank this gentleman for making the effort to phone me and for explaining these details.
I wrote about this to John.

John was quick to find out the facts about which he wrote in his blog on 15 th July 2009.

'The bits on Maldivia I found there are as follows:[1735]March 17.—Capt. Polly of the Drake at the distance of 150 leagues from land took up a Boat with ten Blacks of the Maldive Islands who were drove out to Sea and near perishing—three died on board, 5 Men, 1 woman and 1 boy landed here.[Note.—The Maldivia Gardens, then a Government Plantation, derived their name from the employment of these men therein.]22nd March 1742 —Major Thomas Lambert arrived and proclaimed Governor.6th April—The property called " The Maldives" turned into a Hospital.

( http://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html)

But before John wrote this piece on 15th July, 2009 we the Maldivian community in Manchester, UK decided that we must say a Thank you to this wonderful man who shed light about the lives of some of our own people who had drifted away from our country some 274 years ago. When I contacted the small Maldivian community in Manchester, everyone I spoke to wanted to meet John and felt a need to thank him.

Perhaps it was because John had already visited Maldives 3 times before his visit to St. Helena, that the word Maldivia caught his attention such that he wrote about Maldivia and how the place got the name in this blog article .

Over dinner on 14th July, 2009, I was eager to ask John whether there was any possibility of tracing back the descendents of these people.
He looked at me trying not to hurt my feelings, trying not to disappoint me but replied,
'the only way would be to do a DNA test of everyone who lives in St. Helena now'
He told me that there is no folk memories about these Maldivians.
I asked, ' what about from their food habits....may be some of the recipes....may be similar....'
I saw John looking at me. He told me it would be almost impossible to find out anything more about them. Searching for any Maldivians in St. Helena would be futile now.

It was difficult to accept this, but I understood. We all understood this from our conversation with John.

Ironically we were also 10 Maldivians (just like the 10 people who drifted away from the home country in 1735) who were currently living away from home...in Manchester UK. We all felt a need (cannot really describe why we felt the need but I guess its because we came to know about a bit of our own history through John) to say Thankyou to John and his lovely wife and we did so over dinner at Punjab Restaurant, Curry Mile, Rusholme.

I am sure I will still repeat the same questions next time I meet him. There may be many others in Maldives who may do the same....when John and his wife decide to visit Maldives again.

John, Thanks again.