Just as he would have preferred during his lifetime, the 92nd birthday of Anguilla’s 1967 Revolutionary Leader, the late James Ronald Webster, passed quietly on Friday, March 2, 2018.
Mr. Webster died on December 9, 2016, at the age of 90 and was accorded a State Funeral by the Government of Anguilla on January 13, 2017. His birthday, an annual national holiday, was originally marked by a number of officially-arranged activities until the revolutionary leader requested that the celebrations should be discontinued, citing both his humility and the need to cut, what he thought, was unnecessary spending. He had no objection, however, to the basic public holiday for his birthday.
As a tribute to him, Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks, delivered a radio broadcast on Friday, March 2, recalling his birthday and passing. That address is published elsewhere in this edition of The Anguillian for the national record.
Meanwhile, an Island Harbour election committee of the Anguilla United Movement for Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster, spearheaded a social event at Island Harbour Bay on the above date in honour of the island’s Revolutionary Leader, first Chief Minister and Father of the Nation.
The B class boat race, a centrepiece of the event, has had to be postponed due to high sea conditions. What went well was a small festival-like activity with food, music and dancing mainly at Gretta’s Place. Two other outlets – Falcon Nest and Pelican beach bars also provided catering services.
A different kind of sale service was provided by Dennis Iwassie, a local craftsman, whose nearby business sign read “Iwassie’s Conch Factory”. He, along with “his friend”, manned a display table which featured gleaming pink conch shell cuttings and carvings in the shape of boats, birds and other images.
A considerably large crowd was on hand for the occasion. Among them were a number of tourists. A notable attendee was Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster, Leader of the Anguilla United Movement who was visiting from West Palm Beach in Florida. There, he has his main practice as an Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, with a branch office in Anguilla.
“Today is the birthday of the late Honourable James Ronald Webster, Father of the Nation,” he told The Anguillian newspaper. “I couldn’t let this pass without being here to celebrate the occasion because Mr. Webster did great things for this country and I feel we all owe him a debt of gratitude for what he did for us.
“The committee to elect me, as the next representative for this district, has put on this presentation. We were supposed to have a B class boat race but the sea did not cooperate with us today so we postponed it. Hopefully, we can have it maybe on Sunday if the sea is better. If not, we will hold the race sometime later because we feel it is necessary to honour our late Father of the Nation. Mr. Webster was from Island Harbour. We want to be the district that represents him, and so the people came out. We have the Veto Band, owned and managed by Mr. Orris Smith. They are playing good music; the people are happy and dancing.”
Dr. Webster added: “The crowd is building up. We are seeing people from all over the island. It doesn’t matter what walk of life. They want to be here to celebrate with us the birthday of the Honourable James Ronald Webster.
“We have food, free ice cream for the kids, and there is celebration in the air. This will go on until the last person leaves – whatever time – tonight or tomorrow morning.”
