Anguilla has lost one of his patriotic and well-respected nationals, Mr. George Vernon Fleming, of Sandy Hill. He died at the Princess Alexandra Hospital on Friday, November 20, 2020, at the age of 81.
The soft-spoken Mr. Fleming was a well-known personality on the island in terms of real estate, building and church and community life.
He was best known among many young people, their parents, teachers and other education personnel, for his role as Founder and Captain of the Anguilla Cadet Corps. This is a paramilitary group of highly-disciplined and trained male and female students at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. They are now led by a new Captain/Commander, a number of Lieutenants, other leaders and trainers who, like them, owe their recruitment to the late Captain/Commander, Mr. Fleming.
The Cadet Corps, carrying ceremonial rifles during drilling performances, has evolved into one of the most distinguished youth organisations in Anguilla. Both its uniformed members and leaders frequently participate in several community events, notably the Anguilla Day Official Parade at the Ronald Webster Park. The retired and late Captain Fleming was recently awarded for his contribution to the creation and establishment of the Anguilla Cadet Corps.
He introduced the Cadet Corps in Anguilla shortly after he returned to his homeland from St. Kitts, following the Anguilla Revolution. He migrated to St. Kitts many years ago, where he successfully ran a highly-patronised and successful Customs Brokerage & Trucking Service.
His sojourn in St. Kitts in no way hindered, or otherwise affected, his patriotism for, and commitment to, his beloved Anguilla. In fact, it provided an opportunity for him to greatly enhance his contribution to his homeland. In the 1967-1969 Anguilla Revolution, he became a bold, influential and brave voice for the separation of the island from St. Kitts. Like all Anguillians, he had experienced and endured hardship and neglect in Anguilla while living on the island.
His eventual migration to St. Kitts, in search of employment, told a story about the hard times back home that forced him, and other enterprising Anguillians, to migrate to, and live in, St. Kitts. But life was not politically easy for him in St. Kitts. As an Anguillian, he endured being regarded as a second class citizen and being referred to as a ‘Bobo Johnny”, a scurrilous name given to Anguillians.
Mr. Fleming’s fierce Anguillian patriotism came to the fore particularly in the days of the Anguilla Revolution when he openly and fearlessly supported Anguilla’s move for separation. He was a prolific writer in the St. Kitts Democrat newspaper and The Beacon newspaper in Anguilla in defence of the Anguillian case; and was the object of much political attack and derision in St. Kitts.
It was not surprising, therefore, that, in the heat of the Anguilla Revolution he was thrown in jail by the St. Kitts Government, along with a number of Kittitians who were in sympathy with the Anguillian cause. Even when his release was ordered by the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court, he was imprisoned hours later, and then freed by the court. His case was never called.
That part of his unfortunate life experience is captured in the Book: Anguilla’s Battle For Freedom 1967-1969 by Colville Petty and Nat Hodge. The particular excerpt reads as follows:
Several of the Kittitian detainees, including George Vernon Fleming (an Anguillian resident in St. Kitts), were freed after some two months when the West Indies Associated States Court of Appeal granted a writ of habeus corpus that had been refused by a lower court. Within a few hours of being set free Fleming was re-arrested on the original charge (carrying out acts within and without the State prejudicial to the State) and spent thirty days in prison before being finally released. He was never brought to trial.
Mr. Fleming was in fact an Ambassador-at-Large for Anguilla, “living in the enemy’s territory”, so to speak, while working fearlessly in defence of his homeland. When his work finished in St. Kitts, he returned to Anguilla. He later set up the Cadet Corps and, though semi-retired, he occupied himself with several real estate and other private activities.
The Anguillian offers heartfelt condolences to the late Mr. Fleming’s family.
May his soul rest in peace.
