With the 50th Anniversary of the Anguilla Revolution still fresh in the minds of the people of the island, Ras Bucket (Trevor Davis) is remembering the late Anguillian pilot, Captain Clayton Lloyd, for two reasons.
One reason is that the pioneer pilot, operating Valley Air Service, flew out the St. Kitts Policemen ordered off Anguilla on May 30, 1967. The second reason is that, in Ras Bucket’s words, “Clayton was the first person in Anguilla to have a plane.”
In an article to The Anguillian, Ras Bucket, a Physical Education Tutor, and an outstanding international sprinter for Anguilla from 1975, wrote in part: “I always had a true love for Clayton and I want to thank him, all his family, and all who worked with him. He was a very kind man who loved Anguilla. All of us must remember him.”
As a tribute to the respected deceased pilot, Ras Bucket submitted a drawing of a Valley Air Service plane and requested the newspaper to print it in memory of Mr. Lloyd. “I took my time to draw this plane in memory of him. This is from my heart. Give thanks to Clayton Lloyd for what he did for Anguilla,” he wrote in his article.
He spoke about his mother’s and his close relationship with the Lloyd’s family when he was a little boy, having born and lived in Roaches Hill, not far from the Lloyd’s home.
Ras Bucket recalls, with much sorrow, the untimely passing of Captain Lloyd when the aircraft he was piloting crashed while flying to Anguilla from St. Maarten on Christmas Eve, 1977.
