A former newspaper editor paid just £8,000 for a tropical island and dedicated the rest of his life to restoring its appearance and nurturing the island wildlife.
Brendon Grimshaw, left behind his high-pressured life as he faced unemployment - before the age of 40 - and took an extended holiday.
In 1962, he bought Moyenne, a tiny island just half a mile wide in the luxurious Seychelles, a grouping of islands in the Indian Ocean.
The ex-journalist fell in love with his new home immediately, with its peaceful surroundings and wild tangle of vegetation.
Brendon lived almost completely alone on the island, report Mirror Online.
Moyenne had been left abandoned for decades, prior to his arrival and was so overgrown that falling coconuts were said to never reach the ground.
It has previously been likened to “a tiny rainforest erupting from the ocean”, Yorkshire Live reports.
With the help of 19-year-old Rene Antoine Lafortune, the son of a local fisherman, Brendon, who is originally from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, set about forging paths through the undergrowth.
They also planted trees in an attempt to transform the island.
Brendon built a humble wooden home for himself.
But to truly transform the island he knew he would need to nurture its wildlife back to full health.
He gradually introduced giant tortoises to his corner of the Indian Ocean and eventually shared Moyenne with 120 of the indigenous creatures.
Brendon’s relentless hard work inevitably attracted the attention of wealthy investors, who viewed the Seychelles as a tropical paradise and an ideal spot for a luxury holiday destination.
The ‘real life Robinson Crusoe’ - also since compared to the Tom Hanks character in the 2000 film Castaway - is said to have turned down close to £40million for his small island.
But he wanted to ensure its future in a different way, and not to line corporate pockets.
As he had no children to pass the island to at the time of his death, Brendon signed a perpetual trust with the Seychelles’ Ministry of Environment in 2009.
The agreement marked the island’s transformation into a National Park.
To this day, it remains the smallest island in the world to hold that title.
Brendon passed away in 2012 and his grave sits alongside that of his father, who came to live with him in later life.
His tombstone reads: “Moyenne taught him to open his eyes to the beauty around him and say thank you to God.”
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