Falkland Islands - Signed by Rex Hunt - Directorate of overseas surveys - 1966

Falkland Islands - Signed Rex Hunt and accompanied with the Government House Port Stanley endorsement stamp - Directorate of overseas surveys - 1966

Signed and stamped by Rex Hunt. Copy of the original that was in the Governors office in Governors House Port Stanley.

The Ordnance Survey International or Ordnance Survey Overseas Directorate its predecessors built an archive of air photography, map and survey records for the United Kingdom from 1946 to 1999. The Ordnance Survey International Collection (formerly the Ordnance Survey International Library) held mapping records that were acquired outside the UK.

Although the international division opened in 1946, the OS had been involved in overseas work for almost a century (notably the 1864-65 Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem).

The agency was closed in 2001.

Sir Rex Masterman Hunt, CMG (29 June 1926 – 11 November 2012) was a British Government diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor, Commander-in-Chief, and Vice Admiral of the Falkland Islands (and concurrently High Commissioner of the British Antarctic Territory) between 1980 and September 1985. During the Argentine invasion of the islands in 1982, he was taken prisoner and temporarily removed from his position.

On 14 January 1980, as a final career posting, he was appointed as the Governor of the Falkland Islands and High Commissioner of the British Antarctic Territory. The UK's sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was contested by the Government of Argentina, and with a military dictatorship in place in Buenos Aires, this claim was being asserted with more intent than ever before. Unbeknown to the British Government plans were underway to seize the Islands by force of arms, without a prior declaration of hostilities. In the meantime, Hunt had been dispatched to the Islands as their new Governor, with instructions from the Foreign Office to try, during his tenure administering them, to persuade the recalcitrant islanders that the Islands being moved into an Argentinian governmental sphere of influence, given its geographical proximity compared to that of the United Kingdom, was perhaps in their best long-term interest. Hunt soon discovered that the Falkland Islanders were adamantly opposed to any ceding of their sovereignty in this direction, and he relayed this information back to London; arguing that on consideration of the matter he personally agreed with their views. Hunt's seniors in London did not receive the news well and concluded that Hunt had "gone native". When government minister Nicholas Ridley attempted in 1980–1981 to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the contested sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, local islands politician Adrian Monk made a broadcast on 2 January 1981 outlining the local population's opposition that Hunt described as "Churchillian".

Rex Hunt died at Stockton-on-Tees on 11 November 2012. His funeral, with a pallbearer party from the Royal Air Force, was held at All Saints' Church in Hutton Rudby on 23 November 2012, with a burial in the church's graveyard. His gravestone bears an engraved image of a map outline of the Falkland Islands. A memorial service was simultaneously held in Port Stanley. On the announcement of his death by the British Government, Prime Minister David Cameron stated that Hunt "should be a hero to everyone in Britain for his actions during the Falkland War."

A rare find and clean print, excellent condition. Pricing and grading commensurate.