In an autobiography, with the front cover featuring him on a boat heading to Anguilla from his previous post in Bermuda, former Governor, Brian Canty, tells of some of his experiences on the island during his three-year appointment from 1989 to 1992.
Governor Canty and his wife, Maureen, who are now residing in Scotland, were in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, about two weeks ago, where they arrived on a cruise ship on a voyage from the United States to the Caribbean region.
The couple renewed acquaintances with three Anguillians who were invited to meet them in Philipsburg on Saturday, December 29. They were Cuthwin Webster who, during their posting in Anguilla operated one of the island’s first television stations; historian Colville Petty, who served as a Permanent Secretary and was the first Acting Deputy Governor during that time; and Nat Hodge who was then at Radio Anguilla.
In his book, The Lives of Brian, Mr.Canty wrote in part: “After my Deputy Governor Alan Hoole was promoted and happily exiled as Governor of St. Helena, I continued to work quite successfully with an Acting Deputy Governor chosen from the ranks of the Anguilla Civil Service, Mr. Colville Petty. I actually got an agreement with London that it would be the normal practice to appoint local Deputy Governors where and when possible. Of course, having got the agreement, London then found it expedient to renege on it and informed me that a replacement deputy had been selected.”
Mr Canty told The Anguillian: “I used to get very frustrated at times. I was very annoyed because I had made an arrangement with the Foreign Office that there was going to be a local Deputy Governor and Colville was all lined up to be that. Of course, as soon as I left, somebody pulled the rug and it didn’t happen.” (It was not until 2006, and after the retirement of Mr. Petty, that an Anguillian Deputy Governor, in the person of Mr. Stanley Reid,was eventually appointed to the post in July 2006).
One of Mr and Mrs Canty’s cherished experiences, noted in the book, is the marriage of their daughter, Elaine, in Anguilla. “I was glad that Elaine and Richard decided to get married on the island,” Canty wrote. “I think everyone enjoyed the occasion. The people of Anguilla were very gracious, kind and generous. They provided cherished memories for both Maureen and I, the newly married couple, and for our guests from overseas. I hope we provided in return, an entertaining diversion from the routine, and some good publicity for the tourist sector of the local economy.”
Commenting further on that wedding, Mr.Canty wrote: “The Commissioner of Police volunteered a Guard of Honour at the Church, for which I chose to have an arch of truncheons, instead of the usual more lethal weapons. The police officers were very smart on parade and added greatly to the spectacle of the occasion. I was most grateful to the Commissioner, his Deputy and the men and women of the Force, for their generous contribution of time and effort; for which they declined to accept any remuneration.
“Channel 2TV, and Cuthwin Webster, gave a most enthusiastic coverage of the events at the church, and later at Government House. I think the Bride might have been embarrassed had she heard some of the commentary about “The Royal Wedding” and “Anguilla’s own Princess”. Radio Anguilla put a public address system in the church and the Bridegroom gave them a tape of the music to be played before and after the service. The church was decorated with flowers by the young gardener from the island’s luxurious Malliouhana hotel… The Reverend Gumbs and the Church Choir, did us proudly and I think the service was superb.”
Mr.Canty recalled in his memoirs a case in which a magistrate in Anguilla “had sentenced a couple of juvenile thugs to a few strokes of the birch” during his absence from the island. “One might have been forgiven for thinking that the UK was to be thrown out of the European Community as a consequence,” he stated. “I was encouraged by the FCO to issue a severe reprimand to the offending magistrate, and urge the local government to approve my signing the appropriate European legislation outlawing corporal punishment. At the official opening ceremony for our newly constructed financial centre, I had an opportunity to deliver an appropriate admonishment.”
Another matter which the former Governor recalled was the gruesome murder of a young woman in Anguilla by a Grenadian man residing in Anguilla. He told of how he called an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Council, in an advisory capacity, as the Prerogative of Mercy Committee. “Each member was given a folder containing all of the facts about the case that I had been able to put together,” Mr.Canty remembered. “Before I invited them to read the papers, I asked if they were still of a mind that the execution should take place. It was confirmed.”
He wrote, however, in his book: “The following day I had the Attorney General draw up the commutation of sentence documents, which I signed. The prisoner was then transferred to Grenada to serve his life sentence.
“I was criticised by the local community for my perceived leniency, and thanked by letter for my compassion by the daughter of the murderer. My personal feeling was, and still is, that such a blatant crime should be punished by death but, as I have said elsewhere, I am not opposed to capital punishment where there is no question as to the guilty party.
“However, I do not believe the British Crown can, as the lawyers maintained, legitimise both sides of the argument. I am happy that my position in Anguilla concentrated the minds of the British Government on the injustice that had existed for too long. Thereafter, no British Governor had to find excuses to avoid a situation that embarrassed both the Crown and the practice of good law. The Order in Council (the Caribbean Territories Abolition of Death Penalty for Murder Order 1991, was duly made and came into force on 10 May 1991.
“A last word on the subject: Such is the world in which we live, that the applicant for the job as hangman in the case threatened to sue over his lost job opportunity! I am happy to say though: he never did carry out his threat.”
Speaking about this matter to The Anguillian, Mr Canty said: “My youngest granddaughter asked me: ‘What was the worst thing in your life’? The piece that I chose was the time when we had a murder trial in Anguilla when the constitution required me to hang a man; where the Judge had made no recommendation for mercy whatsoever. Mrs Canty and I sat up in bed one night, with me reading a book, sent by the Home Office on how to tie a hangman’s knot and how to see that an execution was properly carried out.
“That must have been the worst time in my life…I had nothing against the death penalty. I believe it is justified in many cases and should be carried out but I could not support the Foreign Office lawyers’ line that the authority of the Queen is divisible – that she could be the head of the Government in one country, which has one policy on the death penalty, and have another policy – a completely reverse policy – in another country. The BBC World Service rang me up while I was in Anguilla and asked ‘what is your problem?’ The constitution surely requires that the death penalty be carried out.
“And I said yes. But is there a policy that it is alright to hang black men, but we don’t hang white men? I said it is one of the things you have to consider because that is the way the law has now become. Colleagues in the Foreign Office and I engineered the Minister into a position where he actually thought that I would carry out the death penalty and he told the Head of the Caribbean and Atlantic Department…‘I can assure you that Mr Canty will do his duty by the constitution.”
Canty said that the Minister later called him, saying: “I have good news for you: we are going to abolish the death penalty by an Order in Council.
“I told him I am flying back to Anguilla tonight. ‘I only hope you can do it quickly because I am bound by the enforcement of good law not to keep a man under a death penalty hanging around too long.’ That actually forced the Minister’s hand and they went ahead and issued the Order in Council by which they abolished the death penalty.”
Mr Canty devoted Chapter 41 of his book to the current Flag of Anguilla. He wrote that one afternoon in his office he made a sketch of the flag together with a design for an official seal based on the three Dolphins. He was pleased that the flag and coat of arms had received the Queen’s formal approval and that the flag was available for the Anguilla Day Parade at the Ronald Webster Park shortly afterwards.
He also spoke about the formation of the Police Community Band during his term of office. “Commissioner Elliott Richardson worked hard with me on that,” he recalled. “He wanted it to be the Police Band, but I said you can’t have a Police Band because if you put all the Police in the band, you will have nobody to march behind it. So we agreed on the Police Community Band.”
Twenty years later, following his retirement as Governor of Anguilla, Mr Canty observed: “By and large those were three happy years I spent on the island because it was a lovely place in which to live…I enjoyed my time in Anguilla.”
