HUNTER-CHRISTIE PRIZE AWARDED TO HAMISH MCKEE

This year’s FIA-sponsored Hunter-Christie Prize of £100 was awarded to Hamish McKee on 15 December in Stanley.

The Hunter-Christie Prize is awarded each year to a Falklands student studying overseas who is judged to have brought the most credit to the Islands through academic excellence and promoting the Falkland Islands.  Hamish embodies this ethos and while studying for his BSc Marine Biology degree at the University of Exeter, Falmouth he has taken every opportunity to promote the Falklands to his fellow students, as well linking many academic assignments to the Islands.

Hamish volunteered with the Cornish Dive Centre while completing his PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors).  He took the opportunity to promote the Falkland Islands with many diving students, including those from a wide range of backgrounds and from around the world, not only Plymouth and Portsmouth.

Hamish was awarded a 2:1 and returns to the UK to study for his Masters at the University of Portsmouth in 2026.

The Hunter-Christie prize was established in memory of Bill and Merle Hunter-Christie who did much to mobile UK public support for the Falkland Islands in the 1960s when the UK Government was in discussion with Argentina over a possible future transfer of sovereignty.  The work of the Emergency Committee they helped to set up led eventually to the formation of the Falkland Islands Association.