When one says that the Anguilla Revolution was almost bloodless, the obvious conclusion was that some person or persons got hurt as a result of their involvement – and indeed this was the case.
The Revolution of 1967 started when the Statehood Queen Show at The Valley Secondary School held by the St. Kitts Jaycees was broken up by a gang mainly from the eastern end of the island on the night of 4th February.
The stone-throwing protestors outside the school turned off the lights by cutting the cable from the generator and the police tear-gassed them. The darkness in the building and the seepage of the gas inside caused the audience to flee the school. On the compound and out in the road the battle continued with the protestors pelting stones at the police and the lawmen responding with more tear-gas and later resorting to gunfire. It was then that the first blood of the Revolution was drawn.
Claudius Lake of Pond Ground, East End, and Vincent Webster of Island Harbour, were both shot in the leg. They however made it to their homes that night with the assistance of their friends. Webster was arrested the following day on a number of charges and received medical attention. He was found guilty in the Magistrate’s Court and spent six months in prison in St. Kitts where he got further treatment for his bullet wound.
Claudius Lake who was wounded in his ankle, did not receive treatment for more than a week as he went into hiding. Experiencing severe pain, and almost unable to walk after nine days, he traveled to St. Martin where he sought and obtained medical treatment…
Lake and Webster had paid a price in blood for freedom of the Anguilla people who owe them a debt of gratitude. Webster died of natural causes some years ago and the other freedom fighter who recalls his experiences, with a smile, still has a slight limp from his healed wound after thirty years.
Extract from the 30th Aniversary Anguilla Day Magazine (1967-1997)
