While a Thanksgiving Service was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London- the concluding event of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, on Tuesday, June 5 – a Reception and Flag Ceremony took place at Government House,Anguilla, that evening.
The reception, hosted by Governor and Mrs. Harrison, was attended by a large number of invited guests, many of whom were honoured by the Queen over the years for public or community service. The flag ceremony was performed at sunset by officers of the Royal Anguilla Police Force who fired three rounds in hour of the Queen. The ceremony was under the leadership of Sergeant Brian Best.
Governor Harrison said that he and his wife were delighted to welcome the guests at Government House for the Queen’s Birthday party. He observed that it was also the culmination of four days of celebration in Anguilla, theUnited Kingdom, and throughout the world, of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
He took the opportunity to announce that in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee, a special medal had been commissioned to honour those who had worked for many years in the emergency services, the police, prison, fire service and so on. “I am happy to announce that there are approximately eighty recipients of this medal inAnguilla,” he said. “We will announce their names shortly and suitable ceremonies will be held during the course of this summer to honour those who had been so marked out.”
The Governor thanked everybody who was involved, in any way, in the celebrations at the Webster Park which went very well. He noted that there were 4,039 bonfires across the world, includingAnguilla, in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee. He said the bonfires were to be lit at 10 o’clock Caribbean time in theOverseasTerritoriesand the Independent Jurisdictions.
“Ours was a few minutes late [because of a small glitch] so Anguilla has the distinction of lighting the very last bonfire,” Mr. Harrison continued. I was very pleased to see Charlie Gumbs [who is over 100 years old] as one of the bonfire lighters(as well as the much-youngerAlbertLake). “I think he (Charlie Gumbs) represented all of us. He has been alive forlonger than any of us, and throughout the whole of the Queen’s life and indeed her reign.”
Governor Harrison noted that in 1952, when the Queen started her long journey on the Throne, how differentAnguillaand the world were with the absence of many of today’s modern inventions and facilities. He observed that from that year there had been many political developments, decolonisation movements, the creation of the Commonwealth, the growth of democracy throughout the world and the visits to the Commonwealth, includingAnguilla, by the Queen.
Reading from the Diamond Jubilee booklet, published inAnguilla, the Governor referred to an address delivered by the Queen when she visited the island in February 1994. He quoted her speaking then about the progress that had been made inAnguilla, since the 1967 Revolution, in terms of paved roads, water, electricity, an excellent airport, a hospital and two harbours. He added that in one sentence she had tactfully summed up what the Revolution was all about when she said stated: “You have the Anguilla pier at Sandy Ground, rather than at Sandy Point [St. Kitts].”
The Governor went on: “She also said, and again very succinctly…’The choices aboutAnguilla’s future are for Anguillians to make.’ That is when she spoke on the advice of her Ministers. She said in one sentence what Nicholas Ridley had said a few years earlier, when the ceremony was held at which Anguilla became a separate Overseas Territory. He said then, and it is very relevant now as the position hasn’t change: ‘If at any time the Anguillians want independence, it would be a pleasure and privilege to grant this to them; and I made special provision in the Anguilla Act that there should be an Order makingpower if that event were to ever come. On the other hand, I assure Anguillians it would be a choice for you alone and that we will not push you one way or the other.’”
The Governor said he had hosted seven Queen’s Official Birthday parties over the past seven years: three in Zambia and four in Anguilla. He then led a toast to the Queen.
The final activity was the presentation by the Governor of two long service awards to members of the Police Force: Sergeant Randolph Yearwood and Constable Leroy Rouse who both joined the Force in January 1994.
