The Cayman Islands are unlikely to spring to mind when people think of British involvement in the Caribbean; Jamaica, Barbados and Bermuda are far more likely candidates. Yet this group of small islands, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman and Grand Cayman, have been a British territory since the middle of the seventeenth century, at the same time as Jamaica came under Crown rule. After the latter opted for independence, they chose to retain their British links.
Their role in history seems to have started when human beings first arrived in the area, when they are believed to have formed part of a chain of islands across which people from Central America travelled to settle the Caribbean. They were first encountered by Christopher Columbus and served as a useful place for passing European sailors to stop off and resupply before they were eventually settled permanently by the British. Eventually, they fell under the authority of the Governor of Jamaica. Never providing the riches or opportunities that other British West Indian possessions offered, for much of their existence they have been ignored or subjected to what has been called ‘benign neglect’ by Jamaica and Britain.
Despite this, they have had links with Britain for over four and a half centuries, not only through economic but cultural and ancestral connections , with many families in Cayman tracing their ancestry back to British soldiers, sailors and settlers seeking adventure, riches or maybe even a new life in the New World. For most of their settled existence, they have been home to a unique, arduous way of life, with people relying primarily on the sea for their survival, if not their living. This is reflected in the motto of the Caymanian Coat of Arms, granted in 1958, “He hath founded it upon the seas”. Taken from the 24th Psalm, it also reflects the Cayman Islands’ Christian heritage.
Their history is one of people trying to exist on the Caribbean frontier, by growing crops, cutting wood, sailing and catching turtle. Traditionally they have been very isolated for much of the time that they have been inhabited and developed a reputation as the “Islands that Time forgot”. In the last half century, they have seen a remarkable transformation, making full use of the advantages of the modern world, transitioning from the “Islands that Time forgot”, to become not only a luxury holiday destination but an important global banking centre, with one of the highest GDPs in the world. However, this transformation has come with the risk that they lose sight of their past and the unique position that they have occupied in Caribbean and British history.