Lundh, J. P.

English

Aquatic Commons

April1998 NOTICIAS DE GALÁP AGOS 35
A SANTA CRUZ PIONEER HAS DIED
On February 19, 1997, Mrs. Elfriede Horneman passed
away in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Friedel Vonka,
near Kirkenes, in the north of Norway, where she had
been living for a number of years. She would have been
ninety years old in October.
Born in Frankfort as Elfriede Engelmann, she learned
to speak severallanguages and worked as a secretary,
until she met Jacob Hersleb Horneman, a Norwegian
mining engineer, in England in 1938. The two married
and went to Galápagos, where Horneman had owned
property in the Santa Cruz highlands since 1927.
The slender city girl soon became a tough, hard-work-
ing Galápagos pioneer, adapting to the primitive
conditions and making the best of what the island had to
offer. One of her first actions was to change the name of
the Horneman property from "Progreso" to the more
realistic "Vilnis," Norwegian for "wilderness," then la-
boring hard to keep the place from living up to its new
name.
Though she began suffering from back problems,
which caused her considerable pain, Mrs. Horneman
continued working, even learning to lay bricks and wield
the machete. However, she always kept a bright smile
and a brave optimism, no matter how bad things could
seem. Thus, she raised two children, a daughter and a
son, and kept things going.
As if this were not enough, she also offered hearty
hospitality to every visitor, and many well known people
found a welcome in her home: Thor Heyerdahl, Robert
Bowman, Eric Shipton, Sven Gilsater of Swedish TV, E.
Yale Dawson, and many others. However, her hospital-
ity was offered with equal generosity to the poor and
unknown visitor or to fellow settlers who happened to
come to the Horneman home. As the years went by, she
gradually beca me known as "Mutti" to many of these
friends.
Mrs. Horneman finished translating Dr. Stein Hoff's
excellent history on the Norwegian settlers in the
Galápagos, Dremmen om Galápagos (The Dream about
Galápagos), from the Norwegian original to English.
Unfortunately, she died before seeing this work in print.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to know her
feel her death as a great personal 1055.
J. P. Lundh.
GERARD CORLEY SMITH
Gerard Corley Smith,
CMG, former Ambassador to Ecuador,
died on October 7 aged 88. He was born on
July 30, 1909.
AIthough he had a long and distinguished career in
the diplomatic service, Gerard Corley Smith will be par-
ticularly remembered for his close involvement with the
cause of conservation in the Galapagos Islands. His asso-
ciation with the islands began in 1962, when as
Ambassador to Ecuador he attended the official opening
of the Charles Darwin Research Station, and gained an
insight into the unique wonders of that archipelago and
the strenuous efforts being made to safeguard them for
the future. It was a cause that he was to espouse for the
rest of his life.
Gerard Thomas Corley Smith was educated at BoIton
School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1931 he
entered the General Consular Service, and over the next
15 years he served in Paris, Oran, Detroit, La Paz, Milan,
St Louis and Brussels. He first carne to international at-
tention in 1949 when, as the British representative on the
UN Economic and Social Council in New York, he was
chosen to present the case against the Soviet forced labour
camps, or gulags, the existence of which was only then
beginning to be revealed to the world. It was a task that
predictably earned him the anger and disapproval of the
Eastern bloc delegations and their press.
Corley Smith returned to Europe in 1952, and in the
same year was appointed CMG. His next posting was to
Paris, where he served for two years as press counsellor
at the British Embassy. From there he went to Madrid to
take up the appointment as labour counsellor at the Brit-
ish Embassy, 1954-59.
With his wide experience, Corley Smith became Am-
bassador to Haiti in 1960. It was not an easy posting, nor
could it have been under the harrowing and deeply op-
pressive regime ofFran<;ois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier. Years
la ter, Corley Smith would recall his affection for the ordi-
nary Haitian people, who greeted him with their friendly
"Bonjour Blanc!" (a Creole express ion for "Hello,
stranger!") as he took himself bird-watching in the hills.


A Santa Cruz pioneer has died

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A Santa Cruz pioneer has died

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