Book Outline Pioneers in Nation-Building in a Caribbean Mini-State

This page was last updated on: July 11, 2009

Sir Rupert Godfrey John received his early education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Early in his working life, he taught at the secondary school level in St. Vincent and in St. Kitts. He later studied law in England, practiced in St Vincent and subsequently served as magistrate and Attorney-General in Grenada. He joined the United Nations in 1962 and was a senior professional in the UN's Human Rights Division. His stay at the United Nations was marked by several important assignments one of which was a mission to Nigeria during the civil war there. Rupert John returned to St Vincent in 1970 as that country's first native Governor and remained in that office for seven years. After his retirement from that post, he was for some time a Special fellow and Consultant to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Among his publications is Racial Discrimination and its Elimination (1981), also published under UNITAR auspices. Sir Rupert died in 1996.

CONTENTS PREFACE by Rupert John .. v FOREWORD by Davidson Nicol ..ix                INTRODUCTION by Hyacinth Charles ... xi BIOGRAPHICAL FOREWORD by Karl John ...xiii PART I: THE FIGHT AGAINST COLONIALISM AND  PROMOTION OF THE CONCEPT OF SELF-RULE ..1 Chapter I          George Augustus McIntosh ... 3 Chapter II         Herbert Fitz-Allan Bryan Davis .25 Chapter III        Ebenezer Duncan 35 Chapter IV        Alfred Clement De Bique .53      PART II:  THE EFFORTS OF TEACHERS TO EDUCATE THE              YOUNG 65 Chapter V          Benjamin Nathaniel Bacchus ..67 Chapter VI         James Robert Augustus William Cato .75 Chapter VII        Thomas Webster Clarke ..81 Chapter VIII       Christopher Wilberforce Prescod  91 Chapter IX          Darnley Egerton Williams ..101     PART III: THE ROLE OF THE PRESS IN PROMOTING WELL-BEING AND SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT ........................109 Chapter X          Robert Mowbray Anderson ..111 Chapter XI         Joseph Burns Bonadie 125 Chapter XII        James Elliot Sprott 131      PART IV: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC-SPIRITED MERCHANTS ..145 Chapter XIII        Owen Douglas Brisbane .147 Chapter XIV       Walter McGregor Grant 159 Chapter XV          Joseph Milton Gray 169 PART V: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC-SPIRITED PLANTERS ..181 Chapter XVI         Alexander Murdoch Fraser ..183 Chapter XVII        Donald Cuthwin McIntosh  191 Chapter XVIII       Arnold Morgan Punnett 199 PART VI: THE VARIED LABOURS OF A BOLD PEASANTRY 209 Chapter XIX         Simon Solomon Garrett 211 Chapter XX          James Augustus Providence 219 Chapter XXI         Henry Crichton ..225 Chapter XXII        Robert Timothy Samuel ..229 EPILOGUE .233

Pioneers in Nation-Building in a Caribbean Mini-State by Sir Rupert John was first published in 1979. In the preface. Sir Rupert stated that it was "an attempt to consider in one small volume the lives of twenty-two Vincentians and the contributions they made during the earlier years of the twentieth century to the political, economic, social or cultural development of their native land." This republication, thirty years later, should remind the older generation and educate today's generation of Vincentians, about the sterling contributions made by the persons profiled in this book. A Biographical Foreword on Sir Rupert John is included in this republication.  Coming nearly thirteen years after his death, it attests to our conviction that his own contribution to nation-building in his homeland and elsewhere deserves the telling of his own story.

Published by KINGS-SVG St. Vincent and the Grenadines ISBN: 0-9778981-3-X