11092018 WWI Supplement

CALLED TO ARMS

100

th anniversary

TRIBUTE

TO WORLD WAR 1

THE BAHAMAS AND THE GREAT WAR The Gallant Thirty, poppies, the symbol to remember World War 1 and its terrible toll.

ETIENNE, ALARIC, OSMOND, THEIR PALS WHO FOUGHT AND CAME BACK, MEN. Photo courtesy of the Department of Archives

Designed and produced by

The Tribune Established 1903

Being Bound To Swear To The Dogmas Of No Master

NOVEMBER 9TH, 2018

AND MORE INSIDE!

DupuchCorp_1x4_WBN18 11/2/18 4:14 PM Page 2

PAGE 2 ● Friday, November 9, 2018

WORLD WAR I 100TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

THE TRIBUNE

AWARD WINNERS

60 YEARS OF QUALITY PUBLICATIONS Established reputation Proven producer Continuous record of reliable service

CACIQUE Lifetime Achievement Award

CACIQUE Award for Best Photography

ETIENNE DUPUCH JR PUBLICATIONS LTD A BAHAMIAN COMPANY

51 Hawthorne Rd, PO Box N-7513, Nassau, The Bahamas Tel (242) 323-5665 • Fax (242) 323-5728 DUPUCH PUBLICATIONS, BAHAMAS HANDBOOK, THE BAHAMAS INVESTOR, BAHAMAS TRAILBLAZER MAPS, DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE, WHAT-TO-DO, WELCOME BAHAMAS and the “D” Device are registered trademarks of Etienne Dupuch Jr Publications Limited.

BAHAMASNET is a registered trademark of Bahamas Multi-Media Limited.

INTRODUCTION

effects of the great war on the bahamas

by Fel i city Darvi lle

T

The First Draft Unit

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES

wartime sisal success was due in part to increased American demand as sisal was used for rope making and because of unsettled conditions in Mexico, “The

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another sisal producing country.”

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he Bahamas made significant contributions to World War 1, albeit a small country with a population of some 56,000 back in 1914 when the war began. Bahamians sacrificed their lives, served in the armies, offered their hardearned money and prayed for peace during a difficult time worldwide. The country felt the affect of the drought of imports through sanctions, but also uniquely benefitted at the end of the war, when those sanctions made The Bahamas a perfect ground for bootlegging.

When the State of War between England and Germany was announced on August 3, 1914, Britain’s entry into the war affected its entire Empire.

Four days after the war broke out a public meeting was held in Rawson Square. Bahamas Governor Haddon-Smith called a special session of the Legislature during which he was given emergency powers and issued proclamations regarding trade and enemy aliens. Later in the day HaddonSmith informed the patriotic gathering that difficult times were ahead. He emphasised the need for The Bahamas to become self-sufficient in food production. Out Island Commissioners urged their local farmers to increase their agricultural output.

Haddon-Smith’s address in the House of Assembly said, in part: “Through the closing of the European markets, stagnation of trade is bound to occur. The enemy’s merchantile ships will be prohibited from entering our ports. This state of affairs will mean distress to some of the inhabitants of these islands, especially those engaged in the sponge trade, and the men of Long Cay and Inagua who are employed as stevedores on German steamers. It is the duty of the Government to be in a position to give relief to such of the inhabitants who, through no fault of their own, but entirely owing to the conditions of war, are unable to obtain employment and have no means of subsistence…. This is a momentous time for our Empire, there is no need for alarm…”

The Department of Archives’ World War 1 & 2 exhibition 1985 commemorative booklet noted the two wars greatly affected The Bahama islands, however unlike Europe, the

hardships experienced here were limited.

“Although the islands were far removed from the sphere of war, The Bahamas made valuable contributions to the war effort,” it stated.

World War 1 began on July 28, 1914 and by August, the Bahamas’ Speaker of the House of Assembly Harcourt Gladstone Malcolm formed a War Relief Committee. Bahamians contributed and as a result, over 2,000 pounds were raised towards the Prince of Wales Relief Fund by the end of that September.

One year later in August 1915, the enlistment of Colonial Volunteers began. From 1915 – 1917, a total of 486 Bahamian men were dispatched to the British West Indies Regiment. Others joined the British Army directly or the Canadian Forces, and later the United States Army. Altogether, 700 Bahamian men were recorded to have participated in the first World War. Almost all of the men who served in the British West Indies Regiment were coloured, often referred to by the French as “Soldats Noirs Aimables”. Most whites, with a few exceptions such as W.F. Albury, Joined the Canadian, US or British Forces. The second Bahamas Contingent left in 1915. The third left in 1916. The First Draft Unit for The Bahamas also left in 1916, and the Second Draft Unit left in 1917.

Six Bahamians were killed in action, three died from wounds, and 28 from other causes such as illness and an inability to adjust to the cold climates of regions far flung from their tropical home.

THE GALLANT THIRTY

The first group called to war, known as “The Gallant Thirty” underwent extensive preliminary training in New Providence before leaving for further training in Jamaica. They sailed for Jamaica from Prince George Wharf in down town Nassau with a robust crowd of supporters, family and friends cheering them on. The Governor presided over formal farewell proceedings as they sailed off.

The dramatic photo of their departure forms the cover of this supplement, brought to life in colour thanks to Andrew Aitken Imaging, and it serves as the cover photo for this supplement. The photo hangs in the National Archives courtesy of Rev. David Jennings, the Nassau Public Library and the Department of Lands and Surveys.

The Gallant Thirty sailed on the sloop “Varuna” 9 on September 9, 1915. A special march song was played called “Our Bahamian Boys” which was written by Austin Destoup. It was played for the first time by the Police Band and sung by The Gallant Thirty as they marched along East Street to Rawson Square prior to their departure.

As the world commemorates this 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1 on November 11, 1918, The British Legion of The Bahamas is leading a series of national events. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force is leading the charge as the military arm of

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The second Draft Unit

the country. Events will include another military march to Rawson Square, just as The Gallant Thirty did 100 years ago. Most of the events, including the wreath laying, will focus on The Gallant Thirty.

EXPORTS INCREASE IN THE WAR

In addition to having 700 Bahamian men off to war, The Bahamas did experience hardship because of World War 1, but not until late 1917. Before then, the country initially benefitted from the war. From 1915 to 1917, the export of sponge and sisal increased significantly, stimulated by war conditions.

When England initially declared war on Germany in 1914, the sponging industry at first came to a standstill, because most of the sponge was exported to Germany. However, the world’s supply of sponges became scant and sisal was vital in rope making during a time when navigation by sea was prolific.

As sponges were very important to the military, the demand for them increased as the war continued and consequently, prices rose to unprecedented heights. Bahamas sponge sales increased from 99,000 pounds in 1913 to 152,000 pounds, peaking to 164,415 pounds in 1917. At this time, The

The third Draft Unit Bahamas contributed 27 percent of the world’s sponge production. However, Bahamian sponges were considered inferior to Mediterranean ones.

In that same year, sisal brought in 181,700 pounds in revenue. Sisal was introduced to The Bahamas in the 1880s. The industry enjoyed its greatest success during the First World War when demand increased. According to the Archives Department, “prices which rose to unprecedented heights stimulated the production of the fibre in The Bahamas”. In 1916, over 8 million pounds of sisal were exported to the value of 75,601 pounds. Just

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“Although the

one year later, 7.5 million pounds were exported, this time raking in 181,700 pounds for The Bahamas.

“The wartime sisal success was due in part to increased American demand as sisal was used for rope making and because of unsettled conditions in Mexico, another sisal producing country,” Archives reported.

Between 1916 and 1918, tomato production and exports increase with demand from the United States, with up to just over 13,000 pounds in sales.

In 1914, the Agricultural Board issued seeds, cave earth and crates and this spurred a real interest in the industry. The main islands which focused on tomato production were Eleuthera, Exuma, Harbour Island and Cat Island. While tomato production increased, prices decreased because of poor packaging and rough handling of the produce, causing them to be considered inferior to Florida’s tomatoes.

Between 1916 and 1918, the industry peaked.

In 1916, 47,487 bushels were shipping, bringing in 5,640 pounds in revenue for The Bahamas.

In 1918, 58,970 bushels and 7,869 cases were produced and exported, valued at 13,004 pounds.

islands

were far removed from the sphere of war, The Bahamas made

valuable contributions to the war effort.”

Cays and Cay Sal, as submarine bases. Therefore, efforts were made to patrol these areas regularly.

SOUTHERN ISLANDERS SUFFER

LIGHTS OUT FOR TWO YEARS

Recruitment posters were published locally throughout the Empire.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE

On December 21, 1916, a lighting restriction order was instituted through a proclamation by the Colonial Secretary W. Hart Bennett. Public and private lights in the city of Nassau, including car lights, had to be extinguished from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise; precautions that were undertaken to prevent any night attacks by Germany on Nassau.

Local merchants, many of whom were members of the Executive Council, opposed the proclamation.

They recommended the order be rescinded or temporarily suspended as it caused great inconvenience to the inhabitants and adversely affected the tourism industry. The lighting restrictions were not discontinued until 1918.

During the first two years of the war, the tourism industry flourished as the Development Board engaged in aggressive advertising.

However, the US entry into the war caused the tourist trade to virtually collapse, and was only aggravated by the lighting restriction order.

Germany’s use of U-Boats or submarines caused much fear in the West Indies that a sudden attack was imminent, which is why the lighting restrictions were implemented. It was feared the enemy may use outlying Bahamian Cays, especially the Anguilla

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WAR

A number of civic organisations and the Bahamas House of Assembly made contributions to the war effort. The Bahamas Branch of the Red Cross Society shipped items to England such as woolen comforts, children’s clothing and hospital supplies. The War Materials Committee, chaired

by Etienne Dupuch, exported scrap metals, rubber and preserved fruit. Mary Moseley as Editor of the Nassau Guardian led the Belgian Relief Fund, which raised funds to assist the Belgians who were overrun, tortured and afflicted by the Germans.

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Tourism industry, which flourished during the winter months, collapsed during the season of 1916 – 1917 because of the breakdown of the winter steamship service between Florida and Nassau. The United States entry into the war on April 6, 1917 made it impossible for The Bahamas Government to obtain a renewal of the contract with the Ward Line for the New York Mail passenger and freight service.

Supplies became difficult to obtain and prices increased due to infrequent steamship communication with New York, coupled with higher freight rates.

When the US entered the war, food shortages began to occur because it was the main supplier of food to The Bahamas. The American Government imposed stringent regulations through a Food Control Board so that it could effectively control and conserve its food supplies. The US then established a Food Control Committee through which Bahamian merchants could negotiate. But in 1917, the situation became so dire that Governor Allardyce had to travel to the US to negotiate in person. He succeeded in getting only the minimum amount of provisions for The Bahamas, which was one-twelfth of its former imports monthly but even this amount was reduced drastically during the height of shortages.

The US involvement in the war in 1917 made money scarce in The Bahamas, prices rose and severe food shortages occurred. On one occasion, Nassau only had enough flour for a week and bakeries did not bake bread for two days.

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ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS

Inagua, Long Cay and Crooked Island suffered the most, as these islands had been the centre of the stevedoring business. Hamburg American Steamship Lines (then Atlas Steamship Company), the Mexican Railway Company and the Emery Company started stevedoring businesses in Inagua and Long Cay, and attracted men from other islands as well. They worked as stevedores, deck hands, lumberjacks or railway workers in places such as Colon, Panama and Mexico.

Wages drawn by Bahamian stevedores were so high that it became the mainstay of the Inagua and Long Cay district. With the outbreak of war, however, this profitable trade ceased and thousands returned home jobless. As a result, people in the southern islands faced starvation as there was no money and crops had been neglected. People in Inagua returned to salt raking and Long Cay to farming.

In late 1916, stevedoring picked up again after the American Steamship Company and the Benn Lumber Company hired 200 Inaguans as lumberjacks to work in Nicaragua.

BIG THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

by Fel icit y Darvi l l e

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SIR ETIENNE IN THE FULL DRESS UNIFORM OF THE SOVEREIGN AND MILITARY ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA, THE OLDEST ORDER OF CHIVALRY IN THE WORLD, DATING BACK TO THE CRUSADES

t is quite an amazing feat that a man, expected to die at birth; so tiny in stature that he was often underestimated or overlooked; escaped death countless times and was even reported dead three times, would turn out to be one of the most influential people to have ever been born in The Bahamas.

The name Sir Etienne Dupuch is so well known that even though he died in 1991, most Bahamians can at least tell you he was a great journalist and editor of The Tribune, a local daily still holding its own as the most widely circulated newspaper in The Bahamas today.

He was always one to break the mold of what was expected of him.

He was born amid a fierce electrical storm on the morning of Sunday, February 16, 1899 and in his own words: “I don’t know whether the peace of a Sunday morning back in those quiet days in Nassau, mixed with an angry explosion of the elements carried any forebodings of the events to come, but mine has been a stormy life…”

His mother, Harriet (nee Saunders) suffered the misfortune of having several miscarriages. In between, she successfully delivered Gilbert and Naomi, before her second son was born and named Alfred Etienne Jerome.

“Having survived the hazards of birth,” Sir Etienne said, “I had another thousand-to-one chance against surviving the first six months of life.”

“But survive I did, and my over 82 years on this earth (the age he was when he wrote the book Salute to Friend and Foe from which my excerpts are taken) have been punctuated with a thousand and one experiences, any one of which might have blotted out the pages of a story that I never expected to live long enough to write.”

Harriet surely held strong in the love of her husband, Leon Edward Hartman Dupuch, as she persevered and bore another girl, Evelyn for him.

However, her next delivery would be tragic as she delivered a still born girl and lost her own life. Sir Etienne was merely 10-years-old then.

It may have been beneficial that his father exposed him to the newspaper business so early in life, because it ended up being the very thing for which he is known and will continue to be known for long after his death. Leon was once apprentice to EC Moseley, editor of The Guardian. When Etienne was twoyears-old, his father became editor of The Watchman and two years later, his dream was realized as he became founder, proprietor and editor of The Tribune.

Just a year after its inception, when Etienne was five-years-old, his father took him to work where he must have been bitten with the writing bug, as we call it.

His father’s motto for the paper – “Being Bound to Swear to the Dogmas of No Master” would become the mandate of Etienne’s life and his pen did indeed

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I continued to volunteer for every draft. I was finally accepted at the age of 17. I must have still been very small, because marching through Marseilles a year

the First World War

and served on both the Eastern and Western fronts for

three years..."

the “petit garçon” to the lady behind the counter.

Somehow we got together. She didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak French, but for the rest of my stay in that town we met every afternoon in the shop and carried on a delightful conversation with the aid of a SIR ETIENNE WAS 17 YEARS-OLD WHEN HE ENLISTED IN THE pocket French-English dictionary. I was moonstruck by this beautiful maiden and expressed a desire to FIFTH BAHAMAS WAR CONTINGENT. HE IS WEARING THE meet her family. She told me that her father was the KHAKI UNIFORM OF THE LOCAL FORCE. WITH HIM ARE HIS big coal mine owner in Dijon, that the family would OLDER BROTHER GILBERT (STANDING, RIGHT), FIRST COUSIN not approve of her associating with a private soldier, WILLIAM FARRINGTON (LEFT) WHO BECAME AN OUTSTANDING and the only way we could meet was in this shop.

MISSIONARY, AND LITTLE BROTHER EUGENE WHO HAD She also told me A BRILLIANT CAREER IN JOURNALISM, MUSIC, LAW AND that her brother GOVERNMENT, WITH A CBE AND QC BEHIND HIS NAME AS had been a high ranking officer WELL AS A LIFE TITLE OF “HONOURABLE”, WHO REPRESENTED in the French CROOKED ISLAND AND THE EASTERN DISTRICT IN THE HOUSE Army, that he was OF ASSEMBLY, AND WAS MINISTER OF WELFARE FOR THE UBP taken prisoner GOVERNMENT, SERVING AS ACTING PREMIER MANY TIMES by the Germans (WHOM THE EUGENE DUPUCH LAW SCHOOL IS NAMED AFTER) but escaped and came home. He had left home with a robust later, a group of girls ran out of a shop with the cry: body, but when “Oh la, la, petit garçon”. They strung garlands of he returned he flowers around my neck and marched beside me for was a walking some distance, feeding me chocolates. Later, on a skeleton, his forced march in France, I was with a number of men health broken. who “fell out” on a country road. A farming family Returning to nearby came out of their house and saw me. “Petit my billet in a cow garçon!” exclaimed the mother as she put her arm barn from one of protectively around my shoulders, took me into their these charming home and sat me down for a meal with the family. meetings, I On another occasion I entered a small postcard found that we shop in the town of Dijon, along with a friend who was SIR ETIENNE AT AGE 17, IN FULL BATTLE DRESS, MOUNTS GUARD IN THE SAHARA had orders to well over six feet. Looking in my direction a beautiful move up the lines young girl in the shop at the time commented on DESERT, EGYPT, DURING WORLD WAR 1

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LE PETIT GARCON (LITTLE BOY):

age of 17,

“At the as an orphan and still a child, I went overseas with the British West Indies Regiment in

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become even mightier than the sword he sported at his side when in full regalia as a war hero having been made Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II and later Knight Commander of the Ancient Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Pius XII. Sadly, his father died in 1914 at the age of 44, when Etienne was just 15-years-old. This was the year that World War 1 began and it is said Sir Etienne, at the young and tender age of 15, tried to enlist in the British Army. His older brother Gilbert, who now headed the family, apparently had to haul him from the barracks as, of course, by any standard, he was much too young even for consideration.

He was also considered too small in stature.

The young Etienne may have been trying to escape what seemed to be a dismal life. His father had remarried an Eleuthera girl, Ethelinda (nee Pyfrom), who the family loved dearly, and who had given them Eugene, only four-years-old when his father died. Young Etienne may have been seeking a greater sense of belonging, and considered it a “dream of carving my name in glory by giving my life for a just and glorious cause”.

His determination to become a soldier persisted as he continued to volunteer for every draft and when he was 17, although he still did not meet the required age, he succeeded. The military call of King George V went out for all young men between the ages of 18 and 21 living in the British West Indies, to volunteer themselves to fight for the Crown. He was accepted into the 5th Bahamas War Contingent to serve in the British West Indies Regiment.

In his book, Salute to Friend and Foe, Sir Etienne writes: “At the age of 17, as an orphan and still a child, I went overseas with the British West Indies Regiment in the First World War and served on both the Eastern and Western fronts for three years, during at least two of which I faced death almost daily. Yet I came back home to a very uncertain future without having suffered even a scratch from an enemy bullet. There were many, a great many, near shaves as I saw men fall at the right and left and all around me. But it has been truthfully said that ‘a miss is as good as a mile’.”

By the time he wrote this book at age 82, he was the only survivor of the Bahamas War Contingent with which he left in 1916 and the only survivor of his father’s five children. This was amazing for him as his family was “short-lived”, and he had beaten the odds to take on what would be 92 years of a colourful life. His World War 1 experiences are detailed in his book, available on Amazon.com, and a few of those experiences are shared here.

early the next day; all leave was cancelled. It was raining heavily when we marched out of that town.

Our route of march took us by the shop. Standing at the window was my dream girl, whose name I had never learned. She waved. This was goodbye, forever.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Looking back I have often thought of our brief encounter as one of the pleasantest experiences of my army life.

FIRE AT SEA

In early 1916 our unit had been transported by the Fred L Meyer & Sons’ schooner Zellers from Nassau to Jamaica to join the main force collected there from British colonies in this hemisphere. The Zellers was becalmed for several days, on its way to Kingston, in sight of the city. We ran out of food and water. The vessel didn’t have a barometer. A school of tiger sharks swam agitatedly around the vessel.

We didn’t have a line to fish for them, but they bit violently at anything we threw in the water. No one, not even the captain, thought anything was wrong.

We were hungry and our throats were parched by the time a puffy breeze suddenly sprang up and sailed us easily into the harbour at Port Royal. Hardly had we landed when the island was hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in its history and we were turned out to help in rescue operations.

Some weeks after the hurricane had devastated Jamaica, our Bahamian unit embarked in the SS Magdelena with the 5th Reserve Battalion for Alexandria, Egypt. The 5th Reserve had been designed to fill gaps caused by casualties in the first four West Indies battalions to go overseas.

The first two battalions were stationed on the Suez Canal in Egypt. They were later to form a part of Field Marshal Allenby’s force that drove the Turks out of the Holy Land and began the collapse of the ancient Ottoman empire. The 3rd and 4th battalions were on the Western Front, in France and Belgium.

Our departure from Kingston’s harbour had been delayed for several days by a fire that broke out in the coal bunkers of the ship while she was coaling. The fire was thought to have been extinguished before we embarked, but it broke out again several days after we left port and the ship could not break radio silence because of the U-boat (German submarine) menace.

The fire was eventually brought under control.

We soon discovered that the battalion had a doctor but no provision for hospitalisation of men who took sick on the voyage. The doctor had no medicines, not even a bottle of aspirin! We were lodged in the hold of the ship and slept in hammocks slung side by side.

The place was like a scene in Dante’s vision of hell. To add to our misery, the place was crawling with body lice left by previous troops transported on this ship.

Many of the men went down with pneumonia. Every day after a funeral service on deck, the body of a man

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A FAMILY PICTURE OF SIR ETIENNE AND LADY MARIE DUPUCH WITH THEIR CHILDREN, INLAWS AND 13 GRANDCHILDREN AT THEIR HOME IN CAMPERDOWN HEIGHTS IN 1975 sewn up in canvas went over the side. The morning we entered the harbour at Gibraltar for coaling, two bodies were committed to the ocean. And we had the experience of seeing for the first time a British submarine gently glide past us just below the surface of the water. As soon as the Magdelena entered waters infested by German U-boats, a Royal Navy cruiser joined it as an escort. A gun was erected on our stern and a gunman from the cruiser was brought over to accompany it. Then we all paraded on the deck and the captain called for two volunteers to feed the gun in case of attack by submarine.

Immediately, Ray Gibson of Savannah Sound (a cousin of the late Timothy Gibson, CBE, author of the Bahamas’ national anthem) and I stepped out.

Since we had not anticipated the reason for the parade, our action was completely spontaneous, and pleasing to both of us, because for generations the Gibsons of Savannah Sound and the Dupuchs in Nassau had been close friends. It was a great relief to escape the hell hole in the bowels of the ship. We could now sleep on deck in the open air.

DRILL PRACTICE

The British West Indies Regiment (BWIR) is not to be confused with the West India Regiment. The BWIR were volunteers drawn from every island and hamlet in the West Indies, while the West India Regiment was a Regular Army unit that had served with distinction in Britain’s Africa wars. The BWIR was demobilised after the war, whereas the West India Regiment was among the early units disbanded sometime after the war when Britain decided to reduce her Regular Army.

My mother had taken me to some of the Out Islands as a child of eight. As a newsboy, I had moved freely to Over-the-Hill (Grant’s Town) among the humble and friendly people of that area of New Providence. I had never known what it was to mix with hardened men steeped in evil practices.

All the men in our unit used to meet casually for drill practice in the barrack grounds in East Street, Nassau, but after an afternoon’s drill we went back to our homes. It wasn’t until we had set sail in the Zellers and were thrown together in the confined space of the deck of a sailing ship that we got to know each other.

ON THE DESERT

When we arrived at Mex Camp on the Sahara Desert we found tents already erected for us. It rains only once or twice a year there and so no trenches had been dug around the tents for a water run-off in case of rain. That night the camp was struck by a furious hail storm. When day dawned every tent had been flattened, and thousands of our men were huddled together on the desert like a lot of frozen rats. The desert is cruel. Hot as hell by day, it is freezing cold at night. Over 200 of our men went to the hospital with pneumonia. Only a few of them returned. Curiously, the physically strongest men went down. Scrawny little fellows like me seemed to survive. I remember a particular case: The man’s name was Newman, or Newton. He came from Andros. When he walked the muscles of his body rippled like whipcords. Newman was rated the strongest man in our group. But he was one of the men who died as a result of that night’s exposure.

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A GREAT READ

Sir Etienne’s book is a great read, filled with many stories of his escapades during the Great War. They include stories of him falling asleep on guard after a deadly fever nearly took his life, a crime for which he could have faced death by firing squad; a soldier from Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera full of antics and scams; his time in France and Belgium, and more.

Eventually when he returned to Nassau from the war, he was still faced with his father’s Tribune newspaper.

“I didn’t want The Tribune,” he said.

“The simple truth is I was afraid of it. I had seen the inhuman experiences, especially the ingratitude, my father had endured in his single-minded devotion to serving, not ruling, the Bahamian people. I wanted none of it. The only thing I really wanted was to become a simple Out Island farmer, completely removed from the complexities of a life in a city that seemed heartless – soulless – to me. But it didn’t turn out that way. I was hooked, bound to the wheel of labour, a labour of love. I wanted to get away from Nassau and The Tribune when I returned home from overseas service with the British West Indies Regiment on April 1, 1919, but it wasn’t meant to be.

My father had been able to keep The Tribune alive because he had harnessed his entire family to the enterprise. The only thing that mattered to him in life was that The Tribune should be published on time and that, come hell or high water, it should pursue its high goal in life, a goal that kept it in constant

“Sir Etienne was an

exemplary war hero"

Adina Munroe-Charlow of the British Legion Bahamas Branch.

LEON DUPUCH, FOUNDER OF THE TRIBUNE, WITH HIS FAMILY. HE REPRESENTED THE EASTERN DISTRICT IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. GILBERT (STANDING) LATER REPRESENTED LONG ISLAND IN THE HOUSE. LEON’S DAUGHTERS NAOMI AND EVELYN ARE SEATED AS IS ETIENNE AT HIS FATHER’S LEFT.

highest Military Salute to Sir Etienne Dupuch, Kt, OBE, KM, KCSG, (Hon) LLD, D Litt, its past Honorary Founder and President, for his military contributions in both World Wars I and II. He rejected an offer by his commanding officer to remain longer in the war and receive a higher rank, rather choosing to return home as Private Dupuch with his Victory Medal for his military service. He was also recognised as a World War I hero by the Caribbean West India Committee (London).

“Sir Etienne was an exemplary war hero,” writes Adina Munroe-Charlow of the British Legion Bahamas Branch.

“The hard work in his war efforts did not go unnoticed and he was greatly rewarded for the contributions he made in both World Wars. He had the rare distinction of being honoured by the Governments of Britain, the Vatican, and Haiti.

His honours included three Knighthoods – Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth for his social work, Knight of the British Association of the Knights of Malta for public service in The Bahamas, and Knight Commander of the Ancient Order of St Gregory by Pope Pious XII for his work in the field of Education and charities. He was made an Officer of the Order of Toussaint L’Ouverture of Haiti for services performed as that country’s Honorary Consul during World War II.” During World War II Sir Etienne established a War fund for the colony to send scrap metal and canned food items to Great Britain. He was so successful in his efforts that The Bahamas, in its donations of food items to Great Britain during this war was only surpassed by the African state of Rhodesia, which had a large beef industry at that time. Sir Etienne sent large shipments of metals and other essential materials to the Ministry of Supply in London, and with the cooperation of JS Johnson canning factory sent canned food to help feed the children of England. Other items he shipped to Great Britain included sisal fiber, rubber, and gold melted down from donors who would sacrifice their jewellery to assist in the purchase of hospital beds in Malta and to purchase aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

During his time as the Guinness Book of Records’ World’s Longest Serving Editor, he stood for the cause of the poor, fought against discrimination against colour (he presented the Legislation that ended discrimination in the hotels and public places) and any other infringement of human rights, and waged war boldly against politicians who would have otherwise had their way in blinding the public to their misdealings.

He adequately summed it up in the foreword of his book: “I salute friend and foe alike. May God bless my friends. I can only hope that he doesn’t frown too darkly on me if, in a moment when I think He might not be looking, I damn my opponents.”

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conflict with all the powerful interests in the country.”

He knew that getting married and having children that would continue The Tribune legacy was important. He eventually settled down with a woman he felt matched the lofty memories of his mother, and the strength and independence he perceived a wife who could deal with him should have – Marie Plouse of Spangler, Pennsylvania, was that woman. They are survived by five of their six children: Mrs Eileen Dupuch-Carron, still carrying out her father’s vision as publisher of The Tribune; Mr Etienne Dupuch, Jr, publisher of Dupuch Publications; Mrs Joan Munnings of Freeport, Grand Bahama; Mrs Bette Howe of Guelph, Ontario; and former St. Margaret’s Member of Parliament Pierre Dupuch (who also followed in his father’s footsteps as Sir Etienne served in Parliament for 24 years and his granduncle Joseph Dupuch who represented the Eastern District in the House of Assembly). His third son, Bernard, MP for Inagua and Mayaguana, a district his father once represented, died in June, 2014 at the age of 81.

The British Legion Bahamas Branch gave its

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I was quickly “broken in” on the Sahara Desert when I found myself brought before the company commander on a charge of insubordination to a superior officer. Some of the training sergeants on the desert were low-bred, obnoxious men. I resented a couple of them. One day I lost control of my temper and talked back to one of them. At the time, the company CO was holding court. The Jamaican sergeant grabbed me by the back of my trousers and took me to the Orderly Room where court was already in session. I was scared as a cornered rat because some COs could be very severe. I must say that the major who held court that morning was surprisingly gentle with me, especially when now I recall that his Cockney accent stamped him as a man who had come up out of the ranks. Usually these men were very severe. He talked very gently to me. He said he noticed me in the camp and realised that this was a new experience for me. He advised me to let this be the first and the last time that I was insubordinate to a superior officer. He sentenced me to five days CB (confined to barracks). There was punishment besides. At the end of a hard day of drilling under a broiling desert sun, I was set to digging holes in the desert with a shovel for two hours in the evening.

EXCERPTS FROM THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALARIC

WILLIAM URIAH SAUNDERS

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n the Year of our Lord, 1898 at Bailey Town, Bimini, a son was born to Missionaries, William Uriah and Charlotte Jane Saunders.

Yes, I was that son, in fact the ninth son and tenth child. I was given the name Alaric, after the King of the Goths.

I had a normal childhood, just as other little boys on the Island, and I attended school every day. Living on this Island surrounded by water, I spent many happy hours swimming in the beautiful blue-green waters of these tropics. As a boy, I was often faced with many experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant.

At the age of nine, my father died. I felt as if my heart would break. I was my father’s pet being his last son, and I really loved him. My whole life was shattered for many years after his death.

My mother was left with the burden of caring for 13 children. Just imagine having all those mouths to feed every day.

I became close to my mother, and was always at her every beck and call, until at the age of 11 when I was adopted by my school teacher, Walter James Saunders.

I remained in the house of my foster father until his death, just after my 14th birthday. I continued going to school for another year while staying with my foster mother, Louisa Ann Saunders.

ANDROS AND THE SPONGE INDUSTRY At age 15, I started seeking some form of livelihood to help my own mother with the other smaller children who were still in school. Most of the older brothers had already left home to seek their livelihood in Florida. Some of them had gotten married and had forgotten all about their poor mother. I never forgot her and was always around when she needed me, until the time came for me to go to work to help support her.

I decided to become involved in the sponge industry. I started working at a place called “The Mud.” Here we gathered sponges to take to the market in Nassau and at Mastic Point in Andros...

I worked with John De Greek until January 1916 when I left Andros to go to Nassau, where I joined the Third Bahamas Contingent. After completing an initial two-month training period, our ship sailed

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from Nassau to Jamaica on or about the 9th of March 1916.

As we sailed on towards Jamaica, my mind reflected on some of the experiences of my childhood. I thought about my dear old mother, and the way she still had to struggle to bring up the little children, with very little help. I knew it would be a very long time before I saw her again, so I arranged for her to receive a portion of the allowance paid to me by the army.

On our arrival in Jamaica, we immediately became involved in an intensive six-month training program. Shortly after we arrived in Kingston, we heard that the Fourth Bahamas Contingent had also arrived in Jamaica.

However, their ship had to continue to Port Royal to be quarantined, because some of the men were having a fever.

When the training was finished, we were given orders to board the ship for Egypt. The ship was named The Trooper Magdalene. I remembered that my father’s sloop was also named the Magdalene.

It was the month of September,

Soldier Alaric william uriah saunders

bishop Alaric william uriah saunders

six months after our arrival in Kingston that we boarded the Magdalene bound for Egypt. En route, we stopped at Port Royal and picked up the men of the Fourth Bahamas Contingent, both contingents numbered 1,500 men in total.

On our way to Egypt, we encountered many difficulties sailing through the waters of Africa, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar. We made a brief stop at Gibraltar to bury two of our men who had died from the fever.

After leaving Gibraltar, we sailed by the way of Malta and the Rocks of Ages.

While passing through the Gulf of Lions, the largest of all gulfs, we encountered very bad weather.

During the night as we approached the Rock of Ages, we were attacked by a German submarine. We immediately changed course and sailed in a zig-zag manner, to prevent the submarine from getting a definite line on our position.

The captain of the Magdalene called out for help while at the same time blowing the PHOTOS COURTESY OF HIS 22ND CHILD, EVANGELINE

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ship’s whistle non-stop, until three battleships came to our rescue. About half an hour or so after the arrival of the battleships, we heard the exploding torpedoes as they made a direct hit on the submarine and destroyed it. In the lights of the battleships we could see tons of oil floating on the rough seas, as the old Magdalene just tossed and rolled from side to side. The waves continued to beat the ship, sending it deeper into the turbulent waters. At times I thought we went down for good.

After a short time, we were out of danger and on our way to Egypt. We sailed along the coast of Africa and through the Red Sea. Passing over the Red Sea, one can immediately see that the water itself is not red, but the bottom of the sea.

At last, Egypt! After our arrival, we were taken to a place which was known as Mex Camp. Here, we were trained for action on the frontlines. The training was very hard and rugged. Four times everyday we had to report for training. In rain and sunshine, sleet and snow, the bugle would sound so we had to go. As long as we were alive, we had to be there, on that field, no excuses. If we were sick, we would have to report sick before six o’clock in the morning. We would then receive an official written excuse from the doctor. Failing to report for parade without proper notice could result in having to face a very strict commanding officer at ten o’clock in the morning with seven to fourteen days punishment.

When training at Mex Camp ended, we were sent straight into the firing lines. On the way to our designated post, we passed through Jerusalem, The Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the River Nile, Ladd, Java, Gaza, Nazareth and Emmaus.

While passing through Emmaus, I remembered this

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE

MACHINE GUNNERS OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES REGIMENT IN 1916.

MEN OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES REGIMENT CLEAN THEIR RIFLES OF THE ALBERT-AMIENS ROAD. was the place where Jesus walked and talked with the two disciples who at first failed to recognize him, after his resurrection. Passing by the Jordan River, I remembered that here it was that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. I thought of the dove that lighted on the head of Jesus, and I could almost hear the voice coming out of heaven as it said, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

After passing through these many, interesting places, we were assigned to our various trenches at the front lines, there to face the enemy.

Many hard days and nights were spent in those very rough holes. Bombs, shots and hand grenades constantly rang out, with duds, antiaircraft guns, roaring poison gas, and even sharp knives always passing by overheard. Sometimes

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THE WEST INDIA REGIMENT AT THE DAWN OF WAR

it seemed as if it was all over for us, sometimes we were unable to get much needed food and water. There were instances where we brushed the maggots to the side when we found puddles of water to drink. At one time, the enemy had us cut off from these necessities for several days, until greater forces came up and beat them off.

I understood that General Thousand with his 30,000 men were cut off and hemmed in by the enemy and had to eat all their horses and other animals, until General Allenby came in with his reinforcement army. He beat off the Germans, Austrians and Turks from Palestine into the Turkish Borders, where they fled into Constantinople, the capital of Turkey.

While being hemmed in by the enemy, we were forced to live on a meagre supply of rations. For example, we were issued just one quart of water for a 24-hour period. It was to be used for drinking, bathing, washing our clothes and shaving. For food, we were given one 12-ounce tin of bully beef and six hard tacks (a simple type of biscuit or cracker, made

MEN OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES REGIMENT POSE FOR A PHOTOGRAPH IN PALESTINE WITH THEIR REGIMENTAL DRUM AT THE FORE. THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE ENDEAVOURED TO RECORD EVERY ASPECT OF THE REGIMENT’S SERVICE.

Although the war was over, we had to

remain in Egypt

to do duty in the conquered areas, until we were able

to get a ship to take

us back to the West Indies.

from flour, water and sometimes salt; it is commonly used during long sea voyages). These rations were not to be touched until we were instructed to do so.

If anyone disobeyed the rules he was punished.

However, after all that suffering, and many anxious movements when death stared us in the face, the war was finally over. We were stuck in those muddy trenches from 1916 to 1918. So, getting out and having sufficient food and water was an enormous pleasure.

After the Armistice was signed on the 11th day of November 1918, the First World War of 1914-1918 came to a close. Although the war was over, we had to remain in Egypt to do duty in the conquered areas, until we were able to get a ship to take us back to the West Indies.

While awaiting our ship to take us back home, those of us who had saved enough out of our wages, were given one week’s leave to visit the Holy Land.

I was one of the fortunate who had saved enough, to take a week-long trip into the Holy Land.

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MEN OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES REGIMENT POSE PROUDLY IN PALESTINE. After showing a record of my accounts to the Officer-in-Charge, he assured me that I had saved enough money, and said that I would be given a pass to visit the Holy Land. I took my leave and set out on Monday for the Holy City, Jerusalem, the Old City.

(After his tour of the Holy Land Alaric and his comrades were briefly shipped back to Egypt.)

After being in Egypt only a short time, we again set out for another country, Italy. We stayed there for about three months. During our stay we were visited from time to time by some beautiful Italian girls. Needless to say, they were a most pleasant sight for sore eyes.

I enjoyed my stay in Italy, but I began to be homesick and wanted to go home to see my old mother. I wondered how she was making it.

In those last few days in Italy, I had time to think about all the things that happened to me, and about all the places I visited since coming to this part of the world. The hardship now over and done with, I felt as

if I’d gone from the frying pan into the fire, from Egypt to Africa, France, England, Italy, The Jordan River, into the Desert and the wilderness of Asia Minor, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the Sphinx and the Pyramids, Europe and Australia.

I am so happy that I, little Alaric alias Bimini had the opportunity of a lifetime to see all these things with his own eyes. I read a lot about these places, but thank God, I’ve seen them for myself. Therefore, I give God the praise and thanks and the glory for everything.

At last, the big day arrived, and we were discharged from the army. Without hesitation, I left for Bimini to see my old mother and sisters and brothers. What a happy reunion that turned out to be. My mother cried with joy. It was such a beautiful time. I showed them the souvenirs I brought back from the war, my bayonet and steel helmet, and pictures of the Holy Land and other countries; and the leaves from the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I told them about the war and about the hard life of a soldier. We just talked and talked, while my mother just cried and cried. At that time, my four sisters were living home none of them yet married.

During the years of my absence from home, my mother and my sisters only made it by the goodness of the Lord, and with the help of the small allowance I arranged for my mother before I left for the war.

On our return home, we received nothing from the Bahamas Government, except the money that was left on our accounts from that one shilling a day we were paid while serving in the army. I was lucky to have ten pounds on my account, which at that time was a lot of money. Food was very inexpensive at that time. For instance, flour was only four shillings for a large bag.

Little barrels of rice sold for three pence. Sugar was one penny a pound. So, you can see, that ten pounds went a long way. Before that was finished, I began to think of some form of livelihood to support my mother.

In January 1920 Alaric secured a job as a lighthouse keeper.

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MEX CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT.

After my retirement from the lighthouse service, Mr. Chipman supplied me with a stock of all kinds of dry goods and shoes and tennis, In all sizes and colours. This is how I started in business at Inagua.

When my store was first opened, almost all the residents on the Island were customers, including many Turks Islanders who also resided there at that time. First, the store was called “the Saunders General Store.” Later I changed the name to The Turks Island General Store, and this pleased the Turks Islanders so much that almost all of them became my customers.

A few years after opening my business, a number of petty shops began opening also. Most of these businesses operated out of their houses, as some of them are still doing today. These operations began having a slight effect on our business.

We were the only store selling Batik goods from Japan, so I was still doing quite well for a while.

Suddenly, my agent, Howard N. Chipman died, and his sons sold out the business, so I was unable to get any more of the Japanese goods. I tried to set up a system with American agents in Nassau, but having virtually no success in this, my business started to deteriorate.

By this time more of the petty shops were opening up but we were still larger than they were, so we kept on with our business. Today, we are still “hanging on” as they say, doing just enough business to “keep cold hominy from souring,” as the old people used to say. Sometimes I feel like closing out, but my wife is determined to hold out to the end.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE

My first visit to Inagua was a three-year assignment at the lighthouse. This is when I became acquainted with an old man by the name of James Sweeting.

He owned a plot of land in the vicinity of the light station. He agreed to let me cultivate his land, and in return, I was to supply him with food and clothing.

A few years later after setting up this agreement, Mr. Sweeting became ill and had to be taken to the hospital in Nassau, where he died. At his death, in the year 1930, I took over full possession of that piece of property. We called it “The Ranch”. For many years I cultivated the soil and grew a great variety of vegetables such as cabbages, tomatoes, beets, onions, carrots, limes, corn, sweet potatoes and coloured beans. At one time I supplied most of the Island with these vegetables, but at the end of my stay at Inagua, I had to leave on another assignment.

When I returned in 1935, I tried to duplicate my previous success, but this was not to be. By this time, there was very little rain, and also, the salt had taken over the land and affected the farms, causing plants to die.

After my retirement from the lighthouse service, I started a stock farm at “The Ranch”, raising cows, sheep, goats, hogs with scores of young pigs, chickens, ducks and turkeys.

Everything went well until thieves started to shoot the animals. This led me into giving up the farm and selling all the remaining animals. Remembering the words of David from Psalm 118, “O give thanks unto the Lord for all things, for His mercy endureth forever.”

Today, we are still

“ hanging on” as they say, doing just enough business to

“keep cold

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hominy from souring.”

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My first assignment was at Watlings Island to work along with a Principal Keeper names Courtney Pinder. I stayed there for a period of six months. Mr. Pinder had with him three lovely daughters. Their names were, Grace, the eldest, Mable, the second daughter and Gwennie, the third and last child. There were no sons.

During my stay there, I became acquainted with the girls and fell in love with Grace Louise, the eldest. In the month of December 1920, we were united in wedlock in the church by the Reverend Fisher. Then our “lighthouse life” began. It was customary to change posts every two years. For 14 years my wife and I travelled from lighthouse to lighthouse. During that time, we had ten children, five of which had died. After being married for 14 years, my wife died leaving five children, Willie, Juliet, Eloise, Naomi and Gwendolyn.

For the next two years I had to care for the children, working, washing, making their clothes, as well as doing my regular work in the lighthouse.

In 1963, I came back to Inagua where I met Arthur W. Ingraham, a J.P. of the Island. I had met him previously on an earlier trip to Inagua, somewhere between 1930 and 1934. Now after a two-year stint at Abaco, I came back to Inagua.

This time I met one of Arthur Ingraham’s daughters, a frisky little school girl named Iris Claretta Ingraham, with whom I fell in love and won her heart. Without much ado we were married, and the second generation of Alaric Alias Bimini began.

When Iris and I were married, she was only 17-years-old. I was about 17 years older than she was. She was very fruitful and bore 12 children, nine boys and three girls: Emil, George, Astor, Weston, Livingstone, Wittington, Berlington, Walt and Solomon, named after the wise king. Those were the sons. The daughters were: Genevieve, Venus, and Evangeline. All of those names I took from the good old Shakespeare. My last wife, Iris, having a strong husband and a good constitution, never lost a single birth. All of the children grew up to become mothers and fathers and having lots of children.

After we were married, Iris took the responsibility of caring for the children of my former marriage.

She cared for them and loved them as her own.

She helped me to bring them up married and raise families, and to take care of their own homes. She was a blessing, and I will always be grateful for all the love and care that she displayed towards them.

After my marriage to Iris, we continued to travel with our children to the various lighthouses. Included among them were: Great Isaacs, Gun Cay, Stirrups’ Cay, Inagua, Bird Rock, Castle Cay, Cay Lobos, Cay Sal, Elbow Reef, Hole in the Wall and Watlings Island. As usual, we had to spend two years at each one of these stations, then transfer to another. The reason for this change was perhaps the climate, but it was most certainly so that we could become familiar with the working of the entire system.

“We were in a ring

of FIre and it seemed the whole universe was burning.”

LINDA

Lightborn Couldridge reached out to The Tribune after seeing the appeal in Insight for World War 1 descendants to come forward and share what information they had.

She told The Tribune: “Osmond Langford Fernander was my great uncle. (My paternal grandmother was one of his sisters). His sisters, nephews and nieces all called him Osmond. I’m not sure if his first name was actually Ormond, although his headstone in Ebenezer Graveyard does say Ormond; perhaps his family just called him Osmond? His middle name was Langford. Where the middle initial S came from in the original list of drafts, who knows? He did have a brother whose middle initial was S. Possibly there was some mix-up.

Last month I responded to a request from someone in a Bahamas Genealogy group who was asking for the same type of information. However, it wasn’t clear if this person was only looking for info on those from Abaco who served.”

She provided us with two photos, one of which depicts him mounted on a horse on duty in Egypt

by Fel i city Darvi lle

OSMOND LANGFORD

FERNANDER

Back in 1979, Sandra Casson interviewed Osmond Langford Fernander for The Tribune. He was 82 years old at the time.

In the interview, he shared a bit of his past war time experiences, although he was always reluctant to do so. It was a good thing that Ms Casson was able to get a bit out of him, as he died a year later.

Casson caught up with Fernander at his small, quiet bar on Elizabeth Avenue. He was still a bartender at this time, serving as owner of Ossie’s bar, an establishment he had run for 16 years. He initially told her that he didn’t remember anything from the war. But with a little

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prodding, he began to share. She entitled her article: “Lil’ Crazy Fools”.

He told Casson: “When I first came home from the war, our Methodist Minister asked me to come and talk to the children’s class about my experiences in Jerusalem”.

He refused at the time, because he said circumstances had been so bad that he felt no one would believe his accounts.

He was born on December 18, 1896 and had just turned 18 when the war began. He enlisted without the permission of his family because he knew they would not approve. He simply went to the barracks and signed up, returning home in his uniform that afternoon where his father “nearly killed” him, but he felt like a big shot.

He recalled: “Training began locally and consisted of a little running around the barracks and musketeering.

They would march us out west every morning, we would go swimming and

“He asked me why I had

taken the drink and I said I felt I had to drink or die."

march back. They soon put us in shape.”

After three weeks of training, he took his first long trip by sea with the third group to leave Nassau, and recalls the voyage was “terribly rough”. He was assigned to the second battalion of the British West Indies Regiment and was eventually to join the allBahamian “C-Company” in Palestine.

“Arriving in that strange land on Christmas Day was just like I went home, because I grew up with all the boys in the company,” he said.

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Clarence Augustus White was one of the first contingent of men to sail for Jamaica for final training before heading to London to fight with the UK in World War 1. When The Tribune published the original photograph of this first contingent last month asking for relatives to get in touch, Andre White, an Investment Manager, responded.

As with many of the descendants of World War 1 veterans who came forward to acknowledge their ancestors and their brave acts, Andre doesn’t have much to go on about his grandfather, but shared what he could.

Clarence White, born in 1896, went by the nickname “Carla”. He was born in New Providence and grew up on St. James Road off Shirley Street, one block west of Kemp Road. Andre’s father and Clarence’s son, Dr. George White, also grew up there. His mother was Alice Alicia White. She was a seamstress who also sold frozen juice cups and other snacks in the community.

After returning from World War 1, Clarence is said to have fathered eight children in his marriage, while at least another four have been discovered by his latter descendants. One of them, a daughter, was given his nickname “Carla” as her birth name.

He was a carpenter by trade and when he returned, he set up a workshop with a few of his colleagues where fine woodwork was made – one of those colleagues being George Hepburn. He died in 1962 at the age of 66.

in the carpentry workshop White, far left, poses with his business partners

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HIS GRANDSON ANDRE WHITE

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CLARENCE AUGUSTUS WHITE

“Then all of a sudden out of the clear sky, he turned on the cold water,” Fernander said, “and talk about the yelling and cussing – but it cured us all right.”

That was the only time water poured during his time there.

Each man was only allowed a quart of water each day for washing and drinking. You could drink it all up as you liked, but there would be no more for you until the following day. When the soldiers were on the march, however, they were told when they could take a swallow.

“Imagine only one quart in that boiling sun; it was 130 degrees in the shade,” he said.

One day, Fernander felt he could not march another step without a drink of water. He sneaked a swig from his canteen, but a superior officer spotted him.

He was hauled before the captain: “He asked me why I had taken the drink and I said I felt I had to drink or die. Honest to God, he looked me in the eye and said, ‘Fernander, why wouldn’t you be willing to die’?”

He was punished with seven days “KP” – doing all the dirty work for the camp.

“I was always frightened to take a chance with the water after that,” he said.

Fernander’s solution was to buy a pipe. The soldiers were not allowed to smoke cigarettes out in the desert because the smoke would dry out their mouths. However, they were encouraged to smoke pipes, since a pipe tends to generate saliva. He invested two weeks’ pay, which amounted to about 12 shillings, to buy his first pipe in Alexandria.

“It was a lovely little thing and it was worth the price because I didn’t suffer for the water,” he added.

He told Casson about his World War 1 experience: “I wouldn’t like to do it again but I wouldn’t change the experience.”

Casson wrote: “Time has altered his impressions of the ‘big shot’ he was in 1914. Mr. Fernander now has a different description of those brave Bahamian boys of yesteryear – ‘We were a bunch of lil’ crazy fools’.”

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“The canteen was closed (when he arrived) but I knew the canteen Sergeant; so he opened up and gave me a can of sardines and a package of biscuits (which served as his Christmas dinner).”

Fernander spent three years in Palestine and was among British and French troops in General Allenby’s successful offensive against the Turks, which took the Holy Land. The attack against the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem was launched by Allenby in 1917 from Egypt, and Fernander himself was involved in “one good battle”.

Even from his position at the rear of the troops as an Infantryman, he recalled “seeing the bright glare of battle” and that “it was a fierce battle on the sea coast and, Oh Lord, I thought the world was coming to an end”… We were in a ring of fire and it seemed the whole universe was burning.”

When Allenby made his stand at Gaza, Fernander said, it seemed the entire British navy had been brought in as a back-up force. The company he was a part of was initially responsible for bringing in mules and camels laden with supplies.

During his time serving in Palestine, Fernander suffered from malaria, dysentery and scabies, recalling with a chuckle that the army had a “wonderful cure” for the latter. Men with scabies were herded naked into a large enclosure. When it was his turn, there were between 150 and 200 men in the enclosure. They were all piped with steam. The gears were on the outside and the man at the controls let down the hot steam.

HERBERT GRANT

The descendants of Herbert Grant, including David Thurston, recall that he was a platoon leader when he served in World War 1. They do not have very much to go on, but it has always been a source of pride for his descendants that he was responsible for a troop during his tenure of service. He is said to have served in parts of Europe during the conflict.

Herbert’s daughter, Doris Grant (deceased) was just five-years-old when he died.

She told her daughter, Eleanor Newbold, that she remembered the funeral well.

Eleanor told The Tribune her mother could remember her father’s funeral so well because there was a 21-gun salute as he was being lowered into his grave that made her “nearly jump out” of her skin. As a little girl, it was a memory she carried with her vividly until her old age.

She also remembered a “white man” attending the funeral along with one Dr. Walker who came to find out who was responsible for Herbert Grant’s young daughter. Apparently, he had inhaled some poison gas during the war and after army medical staff saw there was nothing more they could do for him, they sent him home. Little Doris did not know which one of her relatives claimed responsibility for her and received funds on her behalf for her father’s contribution to war efforts.

He was buried in the Western Cemetery, but his name is still engraved on the walls of the war graves site on Infant View Road. His father was a Grant, but his mother was Constance Burnside. She was a well-known seamstress and she eventually moved to Florida where she continued her craft.

The family of Herbert Grant took great pride in his participation in the war and Dr. Herbert Olander of St. Luke’s Medical Centre, Centreville, is one of the descendants who was named in his honour. There was also a popular dentist on Fort Hill near Nassau Street, Dr. Burnside, who was his first cousin and also a very close friend.

Doris is said to have been buried in the plot along with her father when she died recently.

ROLLIE AND EUGENE Fox

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Quite a number of men from Abaco signed up to serve in World War 1. It is a part of Abaco’s history for which natives are particularly proud. On October 29, 2018, 100th anniversary ceremonies were held in Abaco with pomp and fanfare, led by the British Legion and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

In response to The Tribune’s appeal for descendants of World War 1 veterans to come forward and share their ancestor’s stories, we heard from Judith Fox. Her uncles, Rollie and Eugene Fox, served in the war.

Eugene, the youngest of her uncles, was still alive when she was a teenager.

She recalls he was a very soft spoken man, and “very gentle”. She was told by other family members, however, that he did have a temper. His mother, Martha Fox-Taylor, shared with Judith how distraught her mother (also named Martha) was at her sons, Rollie and Eugene, enlisting in the war.

Martha shared stories with her about how she remembered the painful day that she cried and cried as her sons left Cave Cay, Abaco to head to Nassau before being sent off to war. Prior to leaving, her son Eugene made sure to order that any stipend he was to receive, be given over to his mother as opposed to his father.

When the troops returned, there was a major celebration on the Eastern Parade in Nassau. Many Abaconians sailed to the capital to witness the event. Martha is said to have scanned the faces of those who returned with angst. Her youngest Eugene, returned home with a locket for his mother.

Martha would lament how her sons picked up two vices from their experience at war – smoking and swearing.

More details of this experience and Martha’s memories of growing up in Cave Cay, Abaco will be recorded in a book that Judith is in the process of publishing.

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ever let it be said that the Bahamas did not sacrifice its own when the call came for war.

World War One took its devastating toll on British West Indian colonies. Families lost husbands and sons to the Great War being fought so far from the sunny beaches of Caribbean islands. Through a letter about a forgotten Bahamian, we find one lost son who perished in one of the most famous battles of the conflict.

The Battle of the Somme remains one of the bloodiest recorded battles in human history. In less than five months, more than one million men were wounded or killed.

Never let it be said that the Bahamas did not sacrifice its own when the call came for war. World War One took its devastating Lewis Lowe of Green Turtle Cay, Abaco was killed in the Battle of the Somme.

If it were not for a letter written to the Nassau Guardian of February 10, 1917, the Bahamas would have never known of the ultimate sacrifice and bravery of one of its own.

Lewis Lowe was buried where he fell, at a ruined village, near the Somme, in France.

IN A LETTER TO THE NASSAU GUARDIAN DATED JANUARY 29, 1917, EH MCKINNEY WROTE:

“As you frequently mention the death of Bahamians who have given their lives for the righteous cause, the following information concerning Corporal Lewis Lowe of the 47th Canadian Infantry Regiment no doubt will be of interest to some of your readers.

“Lowe lived with the Rev. C. J. Thompson, then rector of St. Peter’s, Green Turtle Cay, and being an orphan, and having only a grandmother who was in poor circumstances, (today she is quite an invalid) with no parents, he was taken to England by Rev. Thompson about the year 1900. Lowe being then 11 years of age, and when he was killed he was about 28-years-old. It appears that some years after being in England he went to Canada and at the outbreak of the war enlisted.

“Lowe never forgot his grandmother and wrote her regularly.

News of his death was received by mail and the following is an extract from Rev. Thompson’s letter to his grandmother.:‘Mrs. Sarah Sterling, ‘I got the news this morning (24th Nov. 1916) in a very sympathetic letter from his chaplain. Poor Lewis was killed on Sat. night, 18th November. He was going into the front line with his company. The same shell also killed two of his companions and wounded three more. The chaplain tells me that the death was quite instantaneous. He has been buried where he fell, close to the ruined village of Courcelette, Somme, France.The Chaplain sends us his deep sympathy and that of the whole Battalion and says of him ‘Corporal Lowe was a grand soldier and a great favourite. He will be sorely missed among us’.”

VETERAN REMEMBERED

by Fel icit y Darvi l l e

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ionne Benjamin, noted Bahamian artist and publisher of the Bahamian Art & Culture online newsletter, always considered this day – November 11 as an important day in her family’s history. Every November 11, her father would call to remind her: “Honey, it’s Armistice Day! Don’t forget your grandfather and all of those who served in the war!”

In this way, even when others forgot, Dionne always remembered to honour the significance of Veterans in her own way. Her grandfather, Allan Jacob Benjamin, served in World War 1. He was born in Haiti in 1889 and came to The Bahamas before he was a year old.

His mother, Francoise Baptiste travelled with her family by boat to Inagua and lived there for a time before making her way to Nassau.

Benjamin had a German father who had emigrated to Haiti.

BENJAMIN AND BURNSIDE REUNITED AFTER 57 YEARS FROM LEFT - HAMBLIN (HAMILTON) BURNSIDE AND HIS WIFE MARY HAYNES, ALLAN BENJAMIN AND BURNSIDE’S BROTHER, DENTIST JACKSON BURNSIDE

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The Forgotten BAHAMIAN Soldier

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LEWIS LOWE

Allan Benjamin was a part of the “Jolly Eight”, a nickname given to the group of eight men who helped make up the third British West Indies Regiment. He is pictured here in Marcielle, France as the group, who saw active duty, posed for a Christmas photo in 1917.

Benjamin returned to Nassau from the war in 1920, and his first job was at The Tribune newspaper as a letter press operator. Later on, he worked for Bethel Robertson & Co. where he remained for 24 years before retiring in 1968. His first wife was Wilhelmina “Nelly” Benjamin (nee Davis), Dionne’s grandmother. Later on he was remarried to Patricia.

Benjamin also became an entrepreneur. He owned a bar on Blue Hill Road North called The Little Brown Jug. Then, he opened a second bar, this time in down town Bay Street called The Calabash.

Dionne’s father told her that when the Burma Road Riots occurred, rioters did not destroy his father’s business because he was considered “one of them”.

Dionne’s father could also remember that as a boy, his father kept his rifle with the bayonet. He remembered his father fashioning straw men and practicing on them, stabbing them straight through with his bayonet.

By 1976, only two of the Jolly Eight were still alive – Benjamin and Hamblin (Hamilton) Burnside.

In this year, they reunited for the first time in 57 years. They were able to reunite at a wedding held in Nassau. Burnside was living in the United States and had returned home for the wedding.

The other members who had pre-deceased them were Wilfred Roberts, Willie Bodie, Archibold Brown and Arthur Higgs, all Bahamians; as well as Lionel Lunn, a Barbadian, and AC Codrington, a Barbadian who joined the army while in Nassau after serving on the Police Force for a number of years.

In order to enlist, Benjamin and Burnside both “put up” their ages, a common practice at the time. They were both 15-years-old, but enlisted as 17-year-olds, as that was the legal age to enlist in the war at that time. Benjamin’s feet were so small the army could not find regulation boots to fit him.

While in Europe, they were stationed in Belgium, France and Italy. Burnside was second in command of the group that left Nassau. Just like the Gallant Thirty, the Jolly Eight first travelled to Jamaica where they underwent intensive training. They then departed by ship to Cuba to pick up a convoy.

En route to Nova Scotia, Canada, the convoy was escorted by an American Naval vessel. In Canada, they joined a larger convoy destined for Liverpool, England. From Liverpool, they went to Southhampton and then to France, by which time, Benjamin said, “the war was raging”. The group saw active duty on the Western Front up until the end of the war in 1918. They returned to Nassau in 1919.

Benjamin’s comrade Burnside was born in 1899

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THE JOLLY EIGHT, CHRISTMAS OF 1917 BACK ROW FROM LEFT: WILFRED ROBERTS, WILLIE BODIE AND AC CODRINGTON. FRONT ROW: HAMBLIN (HAMILTON BURNSIDE, ALLAN BENJAMIN, ARTHUR HIGGS, ARCHIBALD BROWN AND LIONEL LUNN

ALLAN BENJAMIN WITH HIS FIRST WIFE, WILHELMINA “NELLY” BENJAMIN

on the island of San Salvador, which later had its name changed to Cat Island. While Benjamin stayed in Nassau after the war, Burnside travelled to the United States where he worked as an insurance agent in Miami, Florida. His company, National Benefit Life Insurance, promoted him to assistant manager and he moved to Washington, DC, taking on more responsibilities there. His father, HN Burnside, was a former Out Island Commissioner stationed at what was then Watling’s Island, now called San Salvador.

The jolly two managed to stay in touch over the nearly six decades, albeit infrequent communication. Benjamin was always asking his war buddy to come back home for a visit. That finally happened when Burnside’s niece, Karis Olander, got married. Burnside travelled to Nassau with his wife of 36 years, Mary (nee Haynes) of Atlanta, Georgia and his daughter, Florence. He came home to a completely different country, one unrecognizable to him due to 57 years of changes.

Benjamin, who grew up in the Fort Fincastle district, moved to Quarry Mission Road after returning from the war. He fathered Allan Benjamin Jr, Crispin JW Benjamin (Dionne’s father) who became a personnel manager at Bahamasair, Patricia, a consultant for Revlon International, and Marina D’Aguilar. His wife, Patricia, was a cashier at the Cinema Theatre for over 30 years, and died just months before the reunion of the two war Veterans.

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A simple s e I f i n g i s poppy so much

by Fel i city Darvi lle

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ave you ever driven along Blue Hill Road, which of course is now a one-way heading north, and just as you were about to ascend the incline, notice the blue and yellow building on the right hand side, next to the Southern Recreation Grounds? For years I wondered about the significance of that building. It always seemed to be desolate, but very wellkept. I love history, so I always said that one day I would stop and figure out exactly what that building was for.

In September this year, my opportunity came. I was commissioned to work on this supplement and as a result, I had the pleasure of meeting Woman Reservist Adina MunroeCharlow, Royal Bahamas Defence Force representative. It is the Royal British Legion’s

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Bahamas Branch, and Mrs. Charlow serves as Executive Secretary.

The building stands in honour of the hundreds of Bahamian men who participated in World War 1 and 2.

The British Legion Bahamas Branch (BLBB) was once referred to as The Bahamas Ex-Servicemen Association, which was formed in 1945 by ex-service men and women of World War 2 to preserve their experiences and legacies for future generations. The BLBB is a nonprofit organization registered under the 1992 Companies Act of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas with its headquarters located in Ottowa, Canada. In 1966, the Royal Canadian Legion accepted administrative responsibility from its worldwide headquarters, British Legion International in London. Its main role and objective is to ensure its registered ex-service men and women and widows of deceased World War 2 veterans receive, on a monthly basis, small War Grants provided by both its Canadian Headquarters and the Government of The Bahamas.

When I paid a visit to this historic building, there were boxes of poppies stacked to the roof. These poppies were earmarked for businesses, schools and other institutions for sale. Radio House on Shirley Street, owned by the Tribune Media Group, is one of the businesses selling poppies for the British Legion. In addition, all of TMG’s radio stations will hold a minute’s silence on the day of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1 – November 11 at 11:11am.

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I also met the current Chairman of the Royal British Legion’s Bahamas Branch, 92 year-old Comrade Cephas Ferguson, who was helping to box the poppies. Outside, he showed me the horse trench which was once in use. During the days when horses were the major source of transportation, their owners would stop there and allow them to refresh themselves. As a World War 2 veteran, he commits himself to coming in to the office just about every day.

As classical music played and I watched Mrs. Charlow and crew at work, a lady stopped in and received a check which bore a royal insignia. I later found out that her mother is the widow of a veteran, and that is why her mother is still able to receive financial assistance.

But why do people buy and wear poppies in remembrance of the wars? Because it is a symbol to remember those who have given their lives in war. The reason poppies are used to remember those who have given their lives in battle is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War 1 ended.

This is described in the famous World War One poem, In Flanders Fields by John McCrae: In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Students of C. R. Loved and were loved, and now we lie Walker High School In Flanders fields. are pictured wearing Take up our quarrel with the foe: their remembrance To you from failing hands we throw poppies .

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

PHOTOS: SHAWN HANNA/ If ye break faith with us who die TRIBUNE STAFF We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

Ever since then, they have come to be a symbol of remembering not just those who gave their lives in World War One, but all those who have died on behalf of their country. Every year, volunteers make poppies available throughout the country and people make a donation in order to get their poppy.

The money raised from these donations is used to help servicemen and women who are still alive, whose lives have been changed by wars that they fought in. It might help them to get jobs and somewhere to live, and will also help older war veterans with any support they may need. It is also used to help those who have lost loved ones because of wars. Wearing poppies like this to raise money to help people who had fought in wars started in 1921. This was year that the Royal British Legion was founded on 15 May. In 1922, a factory was set up where disabled former soldiers were employed to make the poppies. Back then, poppies were made of silk. This factory is still running and producing many millions of poppies each year to this very day, albeit paper poppies today. While the majority of people wear their poppy on their chest, there is no right or wrong way to wear a poppy. The Royal British Legion says: “We only ask you to wear it with pride.”

To make a donation to the British Legion, Bahamas Branch, email: britlegionbahamas@gmail.com or call 422-1047 or 676-4066.

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breaking the status quO the mary moseley story

by Felicity Darvi lle

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uring a time when young Bahamian men were turning up at the barracks to volunteer themselves – their best efforts and their lives, for the purpose of defending the British Crown in the Great War, one woman went above and beyond to do the same. She wanted to be a part so much so that she left The Bahamas and set sail for London for the specific purpose of doing her part to aid in the war efforts.

MARY MOSELEY WAS A MEMBER OF THE WOMEN’S AUXILIARY AIR FORCE. STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT: PEGGY HILTON, ANN WANKLYN, BOBBY DUNCOMBE, MARY MOSELEY (WEARING THE HAT), WINKS BROWNRIGG LOUGHRAN, ROSALIE KNOWLES, AND JOAN STRATON. SITTING: PEGGY MILLAR, PAT DUNCOMBE MACDUFF, JOAN WINDER, MARY BROWN AND GRACE JOHNSON

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Mary Moseley has always been one to break the status quo, and in the early 1900s, this would have been no easy feat. She was born in 1878, just one year after her parents, Mr & Mrs Alfred Edwin Mosely, acquired the Nassau Guardian from her grandfather, Edwin Charles Moseley, who founded the paper in 1844. At a very early age, Mary showed a keen interest in journalism and the newspaper business. She was educated in Nassau at the Church High School (later known as St. Hilda’s) and she was also privately tutored.

Her love for the people may have been sparked by the stories of her grandfather. Moseley once worked at The Times newspaper in London. He moved to The Bahamas in 1837 at the request of Geroge Biggs, who desired to have him as the editor of his newspaper, the Argus. During this time, dissent was rising in Nassau over the question of Emancipation, especially with the appointment of a most liberal Governor for The Bahamas, Sir James Carmichael-

RLD WAR. SHE IS PICTURED HERE SELF IN SERVICE TO THE SECOND WO HER ERED OFF L STIL CROSS DOLL FROM ELEY MOS Y MAR THE DUKE OF WINDSOR BUYS A RED ED FOR HRH THE LONG AFTER WORD WAR 1, HRH AS IELD EATF STR RC MRS N AND E RAIS ALONG WITH MRS KENNETH SOLOMO THE BAHAMAS RED CROSS CENTRE ON FLAG DAY. 2,300 POUNDS WER L AT NS. UTIO TRIB CON AND S ION LECT THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR’S STAL COL AND ST JOHN FUND BY MEANS OF DUKE OF GLOUCESTER’S RED CROSS

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AN AMBULANCE from Barbados.

Smyth. Biggs wanted to hire Moseley to help promote the anti-emancipation views of the Argus.

Instead of taking up his appointment as editor, he founded his own paper, the Nassau Guardian.

When Mary was born, her father also acquired the Bahama Herald newspaper a year earlier, noting that Nassau could not sustain three newspapers.

He died in 1904, and Mary became editor and manager of the newspaper. In Wendell Jones’ Most Outstanding Bahamians of the 20th Century, he writes: “It was thought that her new job was temporary but in fact, along with Bahamian history, it became her life long interest”.

In 1907, she acquired the actual business from the estate of the late Percival James Moseley.

In 1914 when World War 1, Mary left Nassau and travelled to London to engage in war work. The war, of course, was big news and at one point, the paper was said to have produced up to three issues per day. Its publications were also important to other countries in the British West Indies as the paper had facilities and a direct connection to a news service out of New York.

Mary formed the Belgian MARY Relief Fund, designed to assist MOSELEY the unfortunate Belgians who had been overrun by the Germans. Through the Nassau Guardian, the Belgian Relief Fund appealed for money to assist the Belgian people who had been “overrun, tortured and afflicted” by the Germans. Members of the community made voluntary contributions to the fund, and clothing was also sent to assist the Belgians. Fundraising concerts and other activities were also held.

The National Archives of The Bahamas shows a letter from the Belgian Minister Count De Lalaing dated January 14, 1915 with the “Belgian Minister’s warmest thanks” for the funds “received from the children in Nassau (per Miss M Moseley) the sum of twenty-five pounds…”.

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contribution tojournalism and documentation of bahamian history was immense through both warand PEACE.” “her

the british legion bahamas branch A FIGHTER plane crew.

During her stay in London, Mary was asked to form the Ladies Committee of the West Indian Contingent. The West Indian Contingent Ladies’ Committee was established in 1915 in London as the women’s wing of the war sub-committee. The Committee’s members were primarily aristocratic Englishwomen whose links to the Caribbean were commercial or through lineage, with some members being descendants of William Wilberforce. HRH Princess Marie Louise, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was Royal Patron of the Ladies’ Committee. The princess supported the West Indies war effort through fundraising on behalf the Committee and demonstrated a particular enthusiasm by consistently attending meetings and hosting fundraisers for the cause, according to the West India Committee website on The Great War. Mary contributed to the war from home and abroad.

She joined the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, a group formed in 1901 which, in addition to The Bahamas Red Cross Guild (formed in 1915) were vigorous in collecting money and foodstuffs for the war. Thousands of garments were also shipped to the British Red Cross. Life Membership was bestowed upon her for her outstanding work within this organization. She served as its first Honourary Secretary for 20 years and later as President of the National Chapter.

It was after the war that King George V instituted the honour system and Mary was given the MBE

(Member of the British Empire) award for her work on behalf of the men in the armed forces from the West Indies. According to The British Legion Bahamas Branch: “Her contribution to journalism and documentation of Bahamian History was immense through both war and peace”.

She was a keen Bahamian historian, and became Chairman of the Trusteeship Committee for the Nassau Public Library and Museum. She worked

MEMBERS of the British West India Regiment during WWI.

closely with Harcourt Malcolm (Speaker of the House of Assembly 1914-1936) researching information pertaining to the history of The Bahamas. She was a member of the Empire Press Union, the Institute of Journalists and the Society of Women Journalists, having attended several conferences worldwide.

Mary own and ran the Nassau Guardian for 48 years to a restricted audience with a circulation seldom exceeding 300 daily. Before World War 2, she had hoped to give the newspaper to her nephew, Doyle Moseley, who lived in Australia at the time. Doyle would enlist in The Royal Air Force during the war and while in a raid over France in the early 1940s he was killed. Since no one in the family was interested in the family business, she turned control and the newspaper to a group of Nassau business and professional men who offered to buy The Nassau Guardian from her. Mary worked in an advisory capacity from 1952–55.

She died on January 19, 1961, at the age of 81.

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we will always remember them The Wound In Time

By Carol Ann Duffy Poet Laureate

I t is t he wound in Time. The century’s t ides,

chant ing t heir bit ter psalms, cannot heal it .

Not t he war to end all wars; deat h’s birt hing place; t he eart h nursing it s t icking metal eggs, hatching new carnage. But how could you know, brave as belief as you boarded t he boats, singing?

The end of God in t he poisonous, shrapneled air.

Poetry gargling it s own blood. We sense it was love you gave your world for; t he town squares silent, await ing t heir cenotaphs. What happened next ?

War. And after t hat ? War. And now? War. War. History might as well be water, chast ising t his shore; for we learn not hing from your endless sacrifice.

Your faces drowning in t he pages of t he sea.

Private McNeil John Private McQuay Joseph Private Moss Thos Private Moss Charles W. Private Moss Oliver Private Newman Joseph Captain O’brien M.B.S. Private R ae Stuart Private Roberts Benjamin E. Private Roker Solomon S. Private Rolle David Private Rolle Sylvaus Private Sands R amond Private Saunders George Private Saunders Jeremiah Lieutenant Sawyer Robin H. LC/ Corpor al Sears Roy Sergeant Sparkman Charles Private Storr Erskine Private Taylor James C. Private Thompson William Private James Wallace Private Wilson Joseph Private Knowles R alph Private Smith Benjamin Private Hillary Gibson

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Private Adderley Preston Private Albury Joseph Private Albury Hartley Private Arthur, J.A. Private Ash Emmanuel Private Bethel Charles A. Private Black Charles Private Boons Osborne Private Brown Harold Private Butler Alexander Private Charlton Daniel LC/ Corpor al Curry Alfred Private Driggs John Private Duncombe Henry LC/ Corpor al Ferguson Herbert LC/ Corpor al Fernander E. Private Gr ant Herbert Private Hall Alfred Private Hanna Edmund Private Ingr aham Geo H. Private Johnson Allan Private Johnson Jose Private Knowles John Private Mitchell Robert A.

BAHAMAS VETERANS CEMETERY, Infant View Road.

PHOTOS: SHAWN Hanna

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THE WAR CEMETERY on Infant View Road had been desecrated and neglected over the years, but there lay the remnants of soldiers who gave served and some who lost their lives in World War I & II. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force is currently renovating the graveyard. It’s entrance walls don the names of those who fought in the wars. In this the 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WORLD WAR I (1914-1918), we remember the fallen:

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WORLD WAR I 100TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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