Why leave St. Kilda?

1
Why leave St. Kilda?
Remoteness Isolation Cut off from modern life
2
Life was hard Food was short
There was danger Just ekeing out an existence
3
In the 19th century men left for better prospects
in industrial Glasgow.
4
Gradually the St Kildans lost their self-
sufficiency, relying on imports of food, fuel and
building materials and furnishing for their
homes. And selling souvenirs (e.g. socks) to
summer visitors In 1852, 36 people emigrated to
Australia, and population decline began (many of
the emigrants died en-route, but a few settled in
Melbourne, and to this day a suburb of the city
is called St Kilda).

5
In 1876, during a period of food shortage, the
first St Kilda mailboat was sent out as a
distress signal. A letter was sealed in a wooden
container with a sheep's bladder acting as a
float. Subsequently, many of these mailboats
were consigned to the sea, and most reached shore
in Scotland or Scandinavia carried by the
prevailing currents.
6
Men who survived World War I failed to return to
St. Kilda. They had seen better prospects
elsewhere.
7
Life was very hard at the best of times - made
worse by the arrival of new diseases like
smallpox and cholera which ravaged the population
in the 18th century.
8
In the late 19th century, packet steamers brought
tourists to gaze at the curiousity of "savages,
living within the British Isles, the like of
which were to be seen in the remote reaches of
the Empire".
Tourism caused the islanders to change their ways
and longer after a better, material life they
hitherto had not known about.
9

More visits by whalers and ships And inventions
like VHF radio broaden the islanders horizons
And made them want to leave
10
The population was ageing Young men wanted to
leave to find a wife Older folk and daughters
were left behind
Finlay MacQueen and his daughter - 1910
11
On 10 May 1930, a petition was signed by 20
islanders We the undersigned . . . hereby
respectfully pray and petition Her sic
Majesty's Government to assist us all to leave
the island this year and to find homes and
occupation for us on the mainland.'
all the houses were locked and the people taken
on board but with the first actual separation
came the first signs of emotion, and men, women
and children wept unrestrainedly