By Francis Quamina Farrier

LAST Sunday, November 11, 2018, many countries around the world, including Guyana, observed Remembrance Day as their citizens paid tributes to those who served in the First and Second World Wars and especially to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their very lives.

There were clouds over the City of Georgetown as veterans, government and other officials and civilian made their way to the Cenotaph at the junction of Main and Church Streets for the traditional 08:00hrs Wreath-Laying Ceremony. Also present were members of the Diplomatic Corps. Many laid wreaths, including Prime Minister, Hon. Moses Nagamootoo and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Carl Greenidge, Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase-Green as well as the heads of the Disciplined Services and others.

During the laying of the wreaths, the Guyana Police Force Band played sombre music. Of note, and what is so often taken for granted at this and other ceremonies, is the saying of prayers by representatives of Guyana’s three main religions – Christian, Hindu and Muslim – showing that there is religious freedom and religious tolerance in Guyana. The clouds which blanketed the city at that first of the two Remembrance Day ceremonies, this year, were more protective than threatening rain. By the 11th hour, the clouds had all but drifted away revealing an almost entirely cloudless blue sky.

Unlike previous years, there was a second Remembrance Day Wreath Laying Ceremony this year. This special ceremony was held at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 2018, which was exactly 100 years after the signing of the Armistice Document which signalled the end of the First World War; the war which was promoted as “A war to end all wars”.

Unfortunately, the Second World War commenced a short 21 years after the First World War ended. Laying wreaths at that second ceremony at the Cenotaph in Georgetown last Sunday, were Guyanese veterans of the Second World War – all of them are now in their nineties. The oldest, Benjamin Durant, celebrated his 100th Birthday a few days later, on Thursday last, with a worthy 11th hour last Sunday morning. Guyana’s last surviving World War One Veteran, Gershom Browne, was up to the very end of his long life, going to the Cenotaph in Georgetown on Remembrance Day, and laying wreaths. He created history by being the only (so far) Guyanese to write a first book at age 100. The book entitled, “A history of Bagotville”, was about his hometown on the West Bank Demerara.

In his address to the veterans and guests at the Guyana Veterans Association headquarters on Carifesta Avenue in Georgetown, the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn, stated that, “The UK government, through the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Service League, will be providing funding to ensure additional support to 7,000 Commonwealth Veterans and their widows from some 30 countries, including Guyana.”

The High Commissioner further told the story of one of the heroes of the Second World War, Guyanese Cy Grant, who was born on November 8, 1918 at Beterverwagting, on the East Coast Demerara and spent some of his boyhood years at New Amsterdam in Berbice. Grant joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, as one of 500 men recruited from the Caribbean as aircrew. “Cy was commissioned as an officer and joined the 103 Squadron as a Navigator, based at the RAF Elsham Wolds in Linkinshire, and was one of a seven-man Lancaster Bomber crew,” the High Commissioner revealed to the audience.

Continuing the gripping story of the Guyanese hero, Quinn said, ‘In 1943, Cy Grant was on a mission as part of The Battle of the Ruhr and was shot down over The Netherlands. He parachuted to safety, but was captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft lll where he spent the next two years before being liberated in 1945,” the British High Commissioner pointed out, adding that, “Cy contributed to the defeat of the Nazis in ways which few of us here can really understand.” This comment prompted a listener to remark, “Guyana, where are your heroes?”

After he was demobbed, Cy Grant went on to study and qualified as a Barrister-at-law in 1950, and also had a very successful career as a singer and movie star. On his last visit to his homeland in 1972, Cy Grant did a concert at the Theatre Guild Playhouse in Kingston, Georgetown, where he sang many well-loved folk songs, among others, as he accompanied himself on the guitar. I have to mention that I was one of the star-struck members of his audience that memorable evening.

I later visited with him at his London home in England in 1982. Another internationally known Guyanese who served in the RAF during World War ll, was the Teacher, Diplomat, and author of “To Sir, With Love” and other best-selling books, E.R Braithwaite.
Cy Grant passed away at age 90, Gershom Brown at age 102 and E.R Braithwaite at age 104.