Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833) sent. An approach to Lieutenant Lowcay to retrieve his property was rebuffed but later he was requested to remove his property as the Government could not be responsible for it. Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833) In December 1832, two naval vessels were sent by the United Kingdom to re-assert British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (), after the United Provinces of the River Plate (part of which later became Argentina) ignored British diplomatic protests over the appointment of Luis Vernet as governor of the Falkland Islands and a dispute over fishing rights. In 1765, Captain John
Military of the Falkland Islands recapturing the territory in June 1982, the UK invested heavily in the defence of the islands, the centrepiece of which was a new airfield at RAF Mount Pleasant, west of Stanley. The base was opened in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986. The Falkland Islands maintains its own part-time volunteer force, the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), previously known as the Falkland Islands Volunteer Corps. Although this unit existed in 1982 as a reinforcement for the Governor's detachment of Royal Marines, it did not play any part in the main conflict during the war of 1982, its members having