Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Ascension Island postmarked on June 2, 1978.
Ascension Island
Green Mountain rises from the submerged Challenger Ridge some 700 miles NW of St. Helena. At 2871 ft., it is the highest point on Ascension Island, and is sur- rounded by sparsely vegetated tableland dotted with the extinct volcanoes that built the island.
Britain garrisoned Ascension in 1815 to block its use in rescuing Napoleon, exiled on St. Helena. When he died in 1821 the Navy remained to provide a sanitorium and victualling base for warships suppressing the West Africa slave trade.
The Navy soon found it could supplement its meagre diet with local turtle that came ashore at night to lay eggs. Sailors were issued with free boots for the hard trek across volcanic clinker desert to the breeding beaches. They rolled the turtles on their backs after completion of egg laying, then towed them back to a pond where they were kept until needed to make soup, or for their veal-like meat. The Lords of the Admiralty back in London, who found it difficult to get turtle soup even as a luxury, strongly disapproved of this, and actually ordered that prisoners sent to work on the island should not be given turtle meat or soup.
The strategic importance of the island declined after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, but in 1899, prompted by communication problems with South Africa at the start of the Boer War, a cable was laid from Capetown to Ascension, and on to St. Helena, where it connected with the main lines to England.
In World War II, Ascension became a major airbase in the battle for Africa and the South Atlantic, and in 1957 it became the farthest island tracking station for the Cape Canaveral test range. Later it was a key link in Apollo moonshot communications.
The Lion of England, shown in this omnibus issue with the Turtle, has been England's Royal Beast since the 12th Century, when Henry I granted lions to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Angevin ancestor to H.M. the Queen. From the time of James I on, it was permanently joined as supporter of the Royal Arms by the unicorn. built the island.
