
A lost community of Britons that has been cut off from the world for 160 years on a tiny island near Honduras will celebrate the royal wedding with maypole dancing, shortbread and renditions of London Bridge Is Falling Down.

Living without electricity or running water, the 800 inhabitants of Saint Helene speak English, sing British folk songs and eat traditional sandwiches.

On May 19th, they will be huddling around a television powered by a generator 5,000miles from Britain to watch Prince Harry and Meghan Markle get married before celebrating around the maypole.

The islanders on Saint Helene – not to be confused with Saint Helena in the south Atlantic – are virtually unknown in the West and say that unlike other former British outposts, they almost never have foreign visitors.

‘We all wish Harry and Meghan all the happiness in the world from our little island out here,’ said carpenter Ernie Whitfield, 50. ‘They have forgotten us but we haven’t forgotten them.’

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Kara Damar, 16, left, and Shantel Bodden, 18, right, proudly hold a commemorative Prince Harry and Megan Markle tea towel

Islanders on Saint Helene perform a maypole dance, known locally as 'plait pole', to reggae music to mark the royal wedding

Andrew Calix Forbes, 71, a marine mechanic on Saint Helena, proudly holds the Union Flag at his boatyard

Islanders performing traditional English folk songs and dances including London Bridge Is Falling Down in celebration

A group of islanders hold a length of bunting after traditional maypole celebrations to mark the wedding of Prince Harry

Teacher Lindon Martinez, 34, sits in his classroom in Saint Helene proudly displaying the Union Flag behind his desk

Marianne Dixon, 37, poses in the shop where she sells basic supplies beneath Union Jack bunting strung overhead

The remote island of Saint Helene which is three miles long and cut off from the outside world by a mangrove swamp

One of the unspoilt beaches on the coast of Saint Helene which also boast unspoilt and unexplored coral reefs just offshore

Part of an archipelago near Honduras called the Bay Islands, Saint Helene – known in Spanish as Santa Elena – was ruled by Britain from 1850 until 1861.

When the Empire withdrew due to pressure from America, their ancestors were left behind and gradually lost recognition from Britain.

Some only married each other but even those who mixed their families with locals keep their original British names like Jones, Bodden, Cooper and McLaughlin.

‘We have British blood,’ said Ted Thomas, 41, a community leader on the island. ‘We know our roots and we will never let them go. We are the lost tribe of Britain.’

My grandfather said to me that before I died the British flag would fly once again over these islands Andrew Calix Forbes, boat mechanic

Boat mechanic Andrew Calix Forbes, 71, said he was ‘a royal subject through and through’.

‘The Queen is our lifeblood,’ he said. ‘We are all wishing congratulations to Harry and Meghan. My grandfather said to me that before I died the British flag would fly once again over these islands.

‘There is not much time left but I still hope and pray it will happen.’

Just three miles long, Saint Helene is cut off by a dense mangrove swamp that can only be crossed in a small boat. The inhabitants of the archipelago still use British slang, calling a woman a ‘bird’ and calling an unpleasant person a ‘bad egg’.

Their accent is a mixture of old-fashioned British regional twang and Caribbean patois. They also use the ‘w’ sound instead of the ‘v’, an extinct cockney accent seen in 19th Century literature.

Although most are impoverished, living off hand-fishing and selling coconut oil, one family even boasts that it is distantly related to the Queen.

‘The Queen Mother was a very remote cousin of mine,’ said Roatán restaurant manager Sheryl Norman, an eighth-generation islander whose family originated in Warwickshire. ‘Deep down we know we’re British, even the smallest child will tell you that.

‘We all love the Queen. She is such a strong and inspiring woman. We love Princess Kate and we are also loving Meghan. Some people are born to be special.’

She added: ‘We’re just missing the passport. I wish Britain would come and take us back.’

The island of Saint Helene, known in Spanish as Santa Elena, which is cut off from the world by a dense mangrove swamp

A Union Flag flies proudly on the shore of the tiny island of Saint Helene whose 800 inhabitants are still loyal to Britain

A woman serves sandwiches at the Maypole party, left, and community leader Ted Thomas holds a picture of the Queen, right

Young members of one extended family pose at their business, Daniel Johnson's Monkey and Sloth Hangout, on Roatán island

The Saint Helene community enjoys a display of maypole dancing, known as 'plait pole', in celebration of the royal wedding

Ernie Whitfield, left, holds a picture of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, and Cheryl Dyaz, right, holds one of Queen Victoria

The community practises British folk traditions like dancing around a tree decorated with sweets, which experts believe may derive from a 12th Century Cheshire tradition called ‘bawming the thorn’

The view from unspoilt Saint Helene with a tiny restaurant set at the end of a pier serving red snapper and fried chicken

A pair of rusty 17th Century cannon from an English frigate that a local man on Saint Helene keeps under his boathouse

The archipelago was once awash with English pirates. One Saint Helene local showed off a pair of rusty 17th Century cannon from an English frigate that he kept under his boathouse.

The community practises British folk traditions like dancing around a tree decorated with sweets, which experts believe may derive from a 12th Century Cheshire tradition called ‘bawming the thorn’.

In a sign of the popularity of the royal family, some locals even harbour a loyalty towards Queen Victoria, who was on the throne when they were under British rule.

Holding a picture of Queen Victoria makes my hair stand on end Sister Cheryl Dyaz

‘Holding a picture of Queen Victoria makes my hair stand on end,’ said Sister Cheryl Dyaz, 63, a church pastor on Saint Helene.

‘It’s like something burning inside. She touches my heart. Looking at her, it’s just like this is the perfect one. This is my Queen.’

Princess Diana also has many fans on the island, which has added to the growing excitement about the upcoming wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

‘Diana’s my girl,’ said fisherman Yeltsin Bowman, 26. ‘To me she was a great person. I love Britain to death and I wish I could change my passport. The royal wedding is like a fairytale to us over here.’

Sherman Wilson-Arch, 64, who owns an iguana farm on the nearby island of Roatán, is descended from Joseph Arch, a Liberal MP who in 1885 became the first agriculture labourer to enter the House of Commons.

He is also distantly related to the Queen, according to a local genealogist. He said: ‘My grandfather was from Liverpool and I’m proud of my British roots.

‘I never ever want to feel like I let my grandfather down or his heritage. I’m 100 per cent loyal to the Queen. I’m proud of my British identity and I will never trade it.’

Islanders perform Maypole celebrations on the tiny island of Saint Helene which is just three miles long and home to just 800

An islander enjoys dancing a version of the English folk tradition, left, and ribbons wind around the pole as they dance, right

Iguana conservationist Sherman Wilson-Arch, 64, is descended from a Victorian Liberal MP and is related to the Queen

The young generation of Saint Helene islanders Tamira Bodden, 14, and Morrie Whitfield, 16, right, celebrating the Maypole

A girl on the island of Saint Helene poses while enjoying the Maypole celebrations for the wedding of Prince Harry

Farmer Nelson Jackson-McNabb, 90, the oldest man of British descent on the islands, left, and one of the youngest, right

Danica Johnson, left, and her mother Diana Johnson, right, pose on the island of Roatán at their family business, a monkey zoo

Mitzi Cooper, who lives on the island of Roatán in a community of English-speaking people descended from Britons

A local boat moves through the water off the coast of Roatán while the setting sun plays on the waves

Although Honduras signed a treaty promising to protect the rights of Britons left behind when the Empire left in 1861, the Saint Helene islanders said they have faced discrimination and neglect.

In the Eighties they were banned from speaking English at school. Their officials were forcibly replaced by Spanish-speakers from the mainland and they were subjected to land seizures.

The island has even been forced to raise extra taxes because Honduras does not properly fund its basic public services.

The larger island of Roatán has become a tourist haven populated mainly by Spanish-speaking mainlanders. Its English-speaking inhabitants resent the fact that English is not officially recognised.

When Honduras celebrated the return of the islands on April 22nd, the islanders did not participate and even held a protest at which they sang London Bridge is Falling Down.

I don’t just feel British. I am British Carson Dilbert, mayor of Roatán

For these reasons, the local mayor, Carson Dilbert, is campaigning to bring British rule back to the islands, a move that would be greeted with huge joy.

‘I don’t just feel British. I am British,’ he said. ‘If I took you one day and gave you to the French, do you think that would make you a Frenchman?

‘The day Britain turned the islands over to the Spanish government was one of the darkest days of our history. We went from shoes to slippers, and from slippers to bare feet.

‘I would fly to Britain with a delegation tomorrow at my own expense to ask the government to take us back. All I need is them to meet and talk and buy us lunch.’

Currently labourers are installing a basic electric grid on Saint Helene. With unspoilt coral reefs, a network of natural caves and sandy beaches, this may bring tourism to the island.

But islanders worry it will open them up to the outside world and erode their British identity.

Farmer Nelson Jackson-McNabb, 90, the oldest man of English descent on the islands, added: ‘I fancy Britain left us behind. If Britain came back it would be very nice. It would be nice to meet the Queen. We’d like to invite her to come here so we can shake her hand and raise the flag.’

Teacher Lindon Martinez strolls past the local nursery school on the island of Saint Helene, home to 800 English-speakers