Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
English Coast English Coast English Coast is that portion of the coast of Antarctica between the northern tip of Rydberg Peninsula and the Buttress Nunataks, on the west side of Palmer Land. To the west is Bryan Coast, and northward runs Rymill Coast east of Alexander Island across George VI Sound. This coast was discovered and explored in 1940, on land by Finn Ronne and Carl R. Eklund and from the air by other members of the East Base of the US Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939–41. It was originally named "Robert English Coast" after Capt. Robert A.J. English, US Navy, Executive Secretary