[2] Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic and England all took an interest in the island as a place to refresh ships and sailors on long voyages.

Because of the strategic importance of St Helena as a fortress and staging post on the way home from India, the Company claimed the Island on 5 May 1659.

A little town sprang up in the valley with the chapel and was subsequently named Jamestown, after King James II.

[3] By 1774 the first parish church in Jamestown showed signs of decay, and so finally a new building was erected.

[4] On 7 March 1849 the first bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, arrived to conduct the confirmations on the island.

Ten years later, in 1859, the Diocese of St. Helena was established by Queen's Order in Council, and included the islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Furthermore, until 1869 the diocese also included the British residents of Rio de Janeiro and other towns on the eastern seaboard of South America as well as the Falklands.

The first bishop, Piers Calverley Claughton, was consecrated in Westminster Abbey and arrived later the same year.

Following the Zulu War, Chief Dinizulu, son of Cetshwayo kaMpande, and his family were exiled to the island in 1890 for nine years.

[5] Bishop Piers Calverley Claughton arrived on HMS Buffalo in 1861 to consecrate the church and conduct a confirmation service.

He held his last service on Ascension Day of 1969 before returning to Halifax, West Yorkshire, where he died on 28 December 1972, aged 54.

[5] The diocesan arms are described as follows: Azure, in base on water barry wavy proper therein fishes naiant Or, an ancient galley manned, sail furled of the last, in chief a crescent Argent and a sun in splendour also of the second.