Anywhere but Annie’s Bay, St David’s.

That was Elaine Fox’s response when she heard that the tech giant Google was planning to land a communications cable where her ancestors once farmed and fished.

"I can trace my father, Albert Peter Fox’s family back six generations there,“ the 77-year-old said. ”My mother, Marvel Griffith’s family go back seven generations.“

Her family had to move when the area became the Kindley Air Force Base in 1941.

Born six years later, she grew up down the road, on the wrong side of the fence.

“Access was restricted, but sometimes my friends on the base would invite me over for picnics or July 4 parties,” she said. “My uncle, Charles Fox, was an American citizen and would sometimes take me over there.”

Her parents worked hard to pass on memories of old St David’s.

“I heard about it all my life,” Ms Fox said.

Now she is determined to keep St David’s heritage going for the next generation. She has been a member of the St David’s Historical Society for years, and is helping it to put together a Fox family tree to go on display at Carter House, St David’s, next year.

“We have all the information now,” she said. “We just have to lay it out.”

Last year, she was part of a team that erected a large rock and plaque to pay tribute to the St David’s islanders who gave up their land and lives during the Second World War. That sits at what is now Annie’s Bay Park, about a half a mile north of Clearwater Beach.

Standing at the edge of the water, midway between Annie’s Bay and Clearwater Beach, Ms Fox pointed to the airfield across the road.

“All along there, going up to the private airport, were little beaches and coves,” she said. “The shoreline was absolutely stunning.”

Her ancestor Copeland Fox built a house where Annie’s Bay Park is around 1800. It was passed to his son, Charles Stiles Fox, and then to his grandson, Henry Mortimer “Captain Tommy” Fox.

“I am descended from Tommy’s older brother, Charles Edwin Fox,” Ms Fox explained. “I believe Tommy’s siblings had shares in the house and he bought them out.”

Mr Fox was born the year Abraham Lincoln became president. He never left Bermuda, but had many adventures as a fisherman, whaler and farmer. He was famous for once climbing into the belly of a whale carcass to prove that the Bible story about Jonah and the whale was correct.

“When the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps formed in 1894, he was one of the first to join,” Ms Fox said. “His house was used as an armoury for the East End.”

When the Second World War erupted, Mr Fox was farming arrowroot, lilies, potatoes and other things on 27 acres.

“He was one of the first to give up his land to the war effort,” Ms Fox said. “When he did that, other people in the neighbourhood followed suit. Normally, he would not have given up that house for anything, but it was wartime, and I think he understood the threat of Hitler.”

During a land compensation hearing in September 1941, Mr Fox said he would soon be back to farming.

He said: “You tell me when the war will be over and I’ll tell you when I’ll be back to farming.”

He was 80.

It was not to be. He died 11 months after giving up his land.

The American military used the Fox homestead as a beach house and recreational centre until it was pulled down in the early 1950s during the construction of Clearwater Beach.

“There are clumps of oleanders at Annie’s Bay Park,” Ms Fox said. “Those used to surround his house. They just keep growing.”

The St David’s Historical Society would like to have the park widened and the public granted access to the nearby hillside to the north.

“There are some of the best views in St David’s up there,” Ms Fox said.

Before the Second World War most people in St David’s lived on that hillside. They had to be close to Annie’s Bay and Ruth’s Bay to race their gigs out to passing ships. Piloting ships into Bermuda was a way of earning money.

“Annie’s Bay was considered the work beach,” Ms Fox said. “The fishermen would pull their boats up there and clean their fish.”

They would then carry their catch over the steep hill, thanks to a set of steps, then sell them on the dock near what became the Black Horse Tavern in St David’s.

The steps are still there but reportedly surrounded by barbed wire.

Ruth’s Bay, also owned by Mr Fox, was more of a recreational beach.

“Ruth’s Bay was picturesque, prettier than Horseshoe Bay,” Ms Fox said. “The base put their dump there and burnt it out of existence.”

She remembers her mother rushing to pull clothes off the line when the black smoke appeared.

“They burnt everything including tyres,” she said. “There was no environmental laws in those days.”

Ruth’s Bay Beach is now buried under boulders.

Ms Fox was grateful when Southside was handed back to Bermuda in 1995, but not overly impressed by Clearwater Beach.

“I swim there every morning,” she said. “It is beautiful, but it is man-made. Long Bay Beach and Well Bay Beach, on Cooper’s Island, mean more to me as they are original beaches. I know that Tommy Fox, his parents and my ancestors spent time over there.”

She is proud that we now have an airport, thanks to sacrifices made by St David’s islanders.

“I think of that sacrifice every time a plane flies over,” she said.

However, she said, the 250 people who gave up their land really had no choice.