"Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007."
Yorkshire Post, 1 Sep 2012
"Conservationist and journalist"
BRENDON Grimshaw, the Yorkshire-born author, journalist and conservationist, has died at the age of 87 at Victoria, capital of The Seychelles on the north eastern side of Mahe Island.
Colleagues who worked alongside him when he was a newspaper editor, first in Kenya (1953-1961) and then in Tanzania (1962-1969) recently received a card through their letterboxes which read: 'Brendon Grimshaw says goodbye to you and this world 1925-2012'.
Underneath the writing was a small picture of the man people called the Robinson Crusoe of The Seychelles. He was sitting alone on the beach at an island called Moyenne, a precious piece of Indian Ocean real estate which he bought in 1962.
Shortly before his death from natural causes, he donated the island which has a market value of $2m to the government of The Seychelles for use as a sanctuary/ heritage site.
He had been on the island since 2007 after the death of his partner, a Seychellois named Rene Lafortune (dubbed by visiting journalists as Brendon's 'Man Friday).
Brendon Grimshaw was born at Dewsbury during a torrential rainstorm on the night of July 27, 1925. Raymond, his father, was a local radio and television repairman, who had to have his trouser turn-ups emptied of water before he was allowed into the local hospital to visit his wife, Kitty, and see his first and only child.
As an only child, he grew up with a love for books and poetry. He left school at 15. His first job was as a trainee reporter with the Batley News. Later, he joined The Star in Sheffield.
In 1953 he responded to an advert for a sub-editor with the East African Standard in Kenya and worked in East Africa for eight years before returning to England via The Seychelles where he saw Moyenne for the first time.
He bought the island for just under £10,000 but continued work as a journalist, first for Reuters in London and then as editor of The Tanganyika Standard in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, until it was nationalised by President Julius Nyerere in l969.
He stayed on in Tanzania for a further three-and-a-half years but in July 1973 sailed to The Seychelles where he lived and worked until his death.
Moyenne is only 4.5 miles away from Mahe – "but far enough away to ensure the privacy I so much enjoy" he wrote in his autobiography, A Grain of Sand – The Story of One Man and an Island (Camerapix Publishers International, 1996).
In the book, he spoke about his early years in Africa and his working relationship with Nyerere who, in those days, was seen by many as a dangerous Marxist.
Brendon Grimshaw took little notice of labels and formed warm, life-long relations with men and women of all races and cultural backgrounds.
When he bought Moyenne it was uninhabited. In 1973 he and Rene went to work.
Two years ago, an American hotel group offered Mr Grimshaw $50m in order to build a hotel on Moyenne and turn the place into a rich man's playground. He rejected the offer.
The two, working sometimes 10-12 hours a day, planted 16,000 trees by hand – including 700 mahogany trees – and constructed 4.8km of nature paths. Conservation work attracted 2,000 new birds to the island and Mr Grimshaw was caretaker of 120 giant tortoises. Moyenne now holds more than two-thirds of all endemic plants in the Seychelles.
Nature lovers paid to stay on the island where they were treated as fellow islanders by the new Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. The couple took it all as one big joke but Mr Grimshaw dedicated his book to Rene with the word: "For Rene Antoine Lafortune, much more than a mere Man Friday."
Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007.
Earlier this year, Brendon Grimshaw told friends that when he died he wanted a quiet funeral attended by close friends. He was buried on the island he loved next to his father, a tiny spot in the Indian Ocean that is forever Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Post, 1 Sep 2012
"Conservationist and journalist"
BRENDON Grimshaw, the Yorkshire-born author, journalist and conservationist, has died at the age of 87 at Victoria, capital of The Seychelles on the north eastern side of Mahe Island.
Colleagues who worked alongside him when he was a newspaper editor, first in Kenya (1953-1961) and then in Tanzania (1962-1969) recently received a card through their letterboxes which read: 'Brendon Grimshaw says goodbye to you and this world 1925-2012'.
Underneath the writing was a small picture of the man people called the Robinson Crusoe of The Seychelles. He was sitting alone on the beach at an island called Moyenne, a precious piece of Indian Ocean real estate which he bought in 1962.
Shortly before his death from natural causes, he donated the island which has a market value of $2m to the government of The Seychelles for use as a sanctuary/ heritage site.
He had been on the island since 2007 after the death of his partner, a Seychellois named Rene Lafortune (dubbed by visiting journalists as Brendon's 'Man Friday).
Brendon Grimshaw was born at Dewsbury during a torrential rainstorm on the night of July 27, 1925. Raymond, his father, was a local radio and television repairman, who had to have his trouser turn-ups emptied of water before he was allowed into the local hospital to visit his wife, Kitty, and see his first and only child.
As an only child, he grew up with a love for books and poetry. He left school at 15. His first job was as a trainee reporter with the Batley News. Later, he joined The Star in Sheffield.
In 1953 he responded to an advert for a sub-editor with the East African Standard in Kenya and worked in East Africa for eight years before returning to England via The Seychelles where he saw Moyenne for the first time.
He bought the island for just under £10,000 but continued work as a journalist, first for Reuters in London and then as editor of The Tanganyika Standard in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, until it was nationalised by President Julius Nyerere in l969.
He stayed on in Tanzania for a further three-and-a-half years but in July 1973 sailed to The Seychelles where he lived and worked until his death.
Moyenne is only 4.5 miles away from Mahe – "but far enough away to ensure the privacy I so much enjoy" he wrote in his autobiography, A Grain of Sand – The Story of One Man and an Island (Camerapix Publishers International, 1996).
In the book, he spoke about his early years in Africa and his working relationship with Nyerere who, in those days, was seen by many as a dangerous Marxist.
Brendon Grimshaw took little notice of labels and formed warm, life-long relations with men and women of all races and cultural backgrounds.
When he bought Moyenne it was uninhabited. In 1973 he and Rene went to work.
Two years ago, an American hotel group offered Mr Grimshaw $50m in order to build a hotel on Moyenne and turn the place into a rich man's playground. He rejected the offer.
The two, working sometimes 10-12 hours a day, planted 16,000 trees by hand – including 700 mahogany trees – and constructed 4.8km of nature paths. Conservation work attracted 2,000 new birds to the island and Mr Grimshaw was caretaker of 120 giant tortoises. Moyenne now holds more than two-thirds of all endemic plants in the Seychelles.
Nature lovers paid to stay on the island where they were treated as fellow islanders by the new Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. The couple took it all as one big joke but Mr Grimshaw dedicated his book to Rene with the word: "For Rene Antoine Lafortune, much more than a mere Man Friday."
Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007.
Earlier this year, Brendon Grimshaw told friends that when he died he wanted a quiet funeral attended by close friends. He was buried on the island he loved next to his father, a tiny spot in the Indian Ocean that is forever Yorkshire.
"Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007."
Yorkshire Post, 1 Sep 2012
"Conservationist and journalist"
BRENDON Grimshaw, the Yorkshire-born author, journalist and conservationist, has died at the age of 87 at Victoria, capital of The Seychelles on the north eastern side of Mahe Island.
Colleagues who worked alongside him when he was a newspaper editor, first in Kenya (1953-1961) and then in Tanzania (1962-1969) recently received a card through their letterboxes which read: 'Brendon Grimshaw says goodbye to you and this world 1925-2012'.
Underneath the writing was a small picture of the man people called the Robinson Crusoe of The Seychelles. He was sitting alone on the beach at an island called Moyenne, a precious piece of Indian Ocean real estate which he bought in 1962.
Shortly before his death from natural causes, he donated the island which has a market value of $2m to the government of The Seychelles for use as a sanctuary/ heritage site.
He had been on the island since 2007 after the death of his partner, a Seychellois named Rene Lafortune (dubbed by visiting journalists as Brendon's 'Man Friday).
Brendon Grimshaw was born at Dewsbury during a torrential rainstorm on the night of July 27, 1925. Raymond, his father, was a local radio and television repairman, who had to have his trouser turn-ups emptied of water before he was allowed into the local hospital to visit his wife, Kitty, and see his first and only child.
As an only child, he grew up with a love for books and poetry. He left school at 15. His first job was as a trainee reporter with the Batley News. Later, he joined The Star in Sheffield.
In 1953 he responded to an advert for a sub-editor with the East African Standard in Kenya and worked in East Africa for eight years before returning to England via The Seychelles where he saw Moyenne for the first time.
He bought the island for just under £10,000 but continued work as a journalist, first for Reuters in London and then as editor of The Tanganyika Standard in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, until it was nationalised by President Julius Nyerere in l969.
He stayed on in Tanzania for a further three-and-a-half years but in July 1973 sailed to The Seychelles where he lived and worked until his death.
Moyenne is only 4.5 miles away from Mahe – "but far enough away to ensure the privacy I so much enjoy" he wrote in his autobiography, A Grain of Sand – The Story of One Man and an Island (Camerapix Publishers International, 1996).
In the book, he spoke about his early years in Africa and his working relationship with Nyerere who, in those days, was seen by many as a dangerous Marxist.
Brendon Grimshaw took little notice of labels and formed warm, life-long relations with men and women of all races and cultural backgrounds.
When he bought Moyenne it was uninhabited. In 1973 he and Rene went to work.
Two years ago, an American hotel group offered Mr Grimshaw $50m in order to build a hotel on Moyenne and turn the place into a rich man's playground. He rejected the offer.
The two, working sometimes 10-12 hours a day, planted 16,000 trees by hand – including 700 mahogany trees – and constructed 4.8km of nature paths. Conservation work attracted 2,000 new birds to the island and Mr Grimshaw was caretaker of 120 giant tortoises. Moyenne now holds more than two-thirds of all endemic plants in the Seychelles.
Nature lovers paid to stay on the island where they were treated as fellow islanders by the new Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. The couple took it all as one big joke but Mr Grimshaw dedicated his book to Rene with the word: "For Rene Antoine Lafortune, much more than a mere Man Friday."
Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007.
Earlier this year, Brendon Grimshaw told friends that when he died he wanted a quiet funeral attended by close friends. He was buried on the island he loved next to his father, a tiny spot in the Indian Ocean that is forever Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Post, 1 Sep 2012
"Conservationist and journalist"
BRENDON Grimshaw, the Yorkshire-born author, journalist and conservationist, has died at the age of 87 at Victoria, capital of The Seychelles on the north eastern side of Mahe Island.
Colleagues who worked alongside him when he was a newspaper editor, first in Kenya (1953-1961) and then in Tanzania (1962-1969) recently received a card through their letterboxes which read: 'Brendon Grimshaw says goodbye to you and this world 1925-2012'.
Underneath the writing was a small picture of the man people called the Robinson Crusoe of The Seychelles. He was sitting alone on the beach at an island called Moyenne, a precious piece of Indian Ocean real estate which he bought in 1962.
Shortly before his death from natural causes, he donated the island which has a market value of $2m to the government of The Seychelles for use as a sanctuary/ heritage site.
He had been on the island since 2007 after the death of his partner, a Seychellois named Rene Lafortune (dubbed by visiting journalists as Brendon's 'Man Friday).
Brendon Grimshaw was born at Dewsbury during a torrential rainstorm on the night of July 27, 1925. Raymond, his father, was a local radio and television repairman, who had to have his trouser turn-ups emptied of water before he was allowed into the local hospital to visit his wife, Kitty, and see his first and only child.
As an only child, he grew up with a love for books and poetry. He left school at 15. His first job was as a trainee reporter with the Batley News. Later, he joined The Star in Sheffield.
In 1953 he responded to an advert for a sub-editor with the East African Standard in Kenya and worked in East Africa for eight years before returning to England via The Seychelles where he saw Moyenne for the first time.
He bought the island for just under £10,000 but continued work as a journalist, first for Reuters in London and then as editor of The Tanganyika Standard in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, until it was nationalised by President Julius Nyerere in l969.
He stayed on in Tanzania for a further three-and-a-half years but in July 1973 sailed to The Seychelles where he lived and worked until his death.
Moyenne is only 4.5 miles away from Mahe – "but far enough away to ensure the privacy I so much enjoy" he wrote in his autobiography, A Grain of Sand – The Story of One Man and an Island (Camerapix Publishers International, 1996).
In the book, he spoke about his early years in Africa and his working relationship with Nyerere who, in those days, was seen by many as a dangerous Marxist.
Brendon Grimshaw took little notice of labels and formed warm, life-long relations with men and women of all races and cultural backgrounds.
When he bought Moyenne it was uninhabited. In 1973 he and Rene went to work.
Two years ago, an American hotel group offered Mr Grimshaw $50m in order to build a hotel on Moyenne and turn the place into a rich man's playground. He rejected the offer.
The two, working sometimes 10-12 hours a day, planted 16,000 trees by hand – including 700 mahogany trees – and constructed 4.8km of nature paths. Conservation work attracted 2,000 new birds to the island and Mr Grimshaw was caretaker of 120 giant tortoises. Moyenne now holds more than two-thirds of all endemic plants in the Seychelles.
Nature lovers paid to stay on the island where they were treated as fellow islanders by the new Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. The couple took it all as one big joke but Mr Grimshaw dedicated his book to Rene with the word: "For Rene Antoine Lafortune, much more than a mere Man Friday."
Rene died from cerebral malaria while on a visit to Singapore in 2007.
Earlier this year, Brendon Grimshaw told friends that when he died he wanted a quiet funeral attended by close friends. He was buried on the island he loved next to his father, a tiny spot in the Indian Ocean that is forever Yorkshire.
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