Sixteen Prison Officers and thirty-nine Fire and Rescue Officers are recipients of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medals for their service to Anguilla.
The medals, commemorating the Queen’s sixty years on the Throne this year, were presented on her behalf by the Minister for theBritishOverseasTerritories, Mark Simmonds, during his visit toAnguillaon Thursday, October 25. He was accompanied by Governor Alistair Harrison who recently presented similar Jubilee Medals to a number of officers of the Royal Anguilla Police Force.
“I want to say firstly, how delighted I am to be given this opportunity to present the medals to you,” Mr. Simmonds told the Prison Superintendent, his Management Team and other Prison Officers. “It is a very significant moment and I want to thank you all, both as a group, and individually, for all the dedication, the hard work and commitment that you have shown over the period that you have been working for the prison service. All your efforts are very much appreciated in this very important in Jubilee Year.”
Acting Prison Superintendent, Allister Richardson, replied to the UK Minister as follows: “On behalf of the Superintendent [Conrad Gumbs] and other ranks of Her Majesty’s Prison, we want to extend to you – and by extension – Her Majesty’s Government, Honourable Sir, our sincere thanks for your support…”
Earlier, Minister of Social Development, Edison Baird, told the press that he was grateful to the Minister for presenting the medals to the deserving Prison Officers and for his support for the prison service.
The British Minister travelled to theClaytonJ.LloydInternationalAirportwhere he met Chief Fire Officer, Martin Richardson, his Management Team and other ranks of the Fire and Rescue Service. Mr. Simmonds congratulated the officers for their work and said he took much pleasure in presenting them with the Queen’s Jubilee Medals. The Minister spent a very short time at the airport where he boarded a LIAT flight for Antigua on his return toLondon.
Chief Fire Officer, Martin Richardson, said he was happy that Mr. Simmonds had visited his department to present the Jubilee Medals and to learn about the operations of the Fire and Rescue Service. “The ceremony went very well and the Minister wanted to know our needs,” Mr. Richardson informed The Anguillian. “I told him we need a fire engine because we only have one and it is barely working. He said he would see what he could do when he gets back to England.”
Minister of Communications, Evan Gumbs, was at the Fire and Rescue Department for the Minister’s visit. “The Fire Officers are doing a very good job thus far,” he commented. “They are working hard and keeping us safe. Without a fire department we would have some real serious problems when there is a major fire. The awards presented to them were a way of telling them that we appreciate their service. I think the Queen’s Jubilee Medals were well deserved. We have some challenges with the Fire Department but we are hoping to have them worked out very soon.”
Governor Harrison, who had the last word, reviewed the Minister’s visit to Anguilla. “Well, the Minister has just boarded the plane. I firstly want to thank all my colleagues in the Governor’s Office who worked so hard to prepare the programme and to carry it through. I would like to thank the Chief Minister and his colleagues for the very interesting discussions that we have had; everybody else for the role they played wherever the Minister visited.
“There were apologies at every meeting that his visit was not longer, but we tried to pack as much into the programme as we could. The Minister himself said the good news is, because he came for so short time, he will have to come again quite soon. I will try to persuade him to come for a few more days close to a weekend perhaps to see more of the delights of the most beautiful island in the world.”
The Governor also expressed thanks to the press for following the Minister around and for the coverage of his visit.
