Sarah’s 5,000-mile gamble for love

Love knew no bounds for Sarah Govett when her soldier sweetheart was posted to the far-off island of St Helena.

After years of writing to him from her home in the Cornish village of Calstock, in the UK, she found a ship bound for the island and worked her passage south – a brave undertaking for a farm labourer’s daughter.

The couple were re-united in June, 1888 – and now their story has been told in a Valentine’s Day post on the ancestry.uk website, under the headline, “How far would you go to be with the one you love?”  

The tale is related by their great-granddaughter, Linda Wilson, a keen family historian – who tells how they had to make a very quick decision about their future together.

The website says she is booked to travel to St Helena in April 2012.