Gallantry rewarded
The people receiving the Order of Jamaica normally take the spotlight at the annual investiture of National Honours and Awards held at King’s House.
But this year, four recipients of awards for gallantry and one man being awarded the Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service are likely to steal the show, judging from the reception they received at yesterday’s rehearsal for tomorrow’s ceremony.
Among them is 76 year-old Harold Smikle Bailey, who 53 years ago, on April 10, 1953, threw caution to the wind, jumped into the sea off the Palisadoes Peninsula and swam to the rescue of the sole survivor of a plane crash. Now supported by wheelchair, but still as spirited as the day he performed the feat, Bailey will receive the Badge of Honour for Gallantry.
Recounting the story again to the Sunday Observer, Bailey said that he was at the time a corporal in the Jamaica Defence Force and was on patrol duty.
“It was a Friday and I was detailed along with another person to. collect money to pay bills. While I was there, a plane was taking off and it had 13 people on it. It was taking off and you could see fire coming from the back,” he said.
“It reached over the big sea and immediately it started to turn to go back to the airport then it just go down in the sea. I shout ‘The plane crash, the plane crash’.
Bailey said he forgot that I was detailed for duty and ran towards the accident. When he got there, he saw the plane still afloat. “I wondered what to do, then suddenly I see the plane like it burst, and two people head come up,” Bailey said.
It was then, he said, that he took of his clothes and jumped into the water.
“I went into the water and swam towards the plane and by the time I reach I didn’t see the second person, so I swam to the person I could see. I put him on my back and swam with one hand, the sea was very rough,” he recounted.
Bailey confided to the Sunday Observer that while he was swimming back to shore with the man, thoughts of shark sightings in that part of the water began to fill his head. Undaunted however, he pressed on to shore and after handing over the survivor to his superior officer, Bailey, in true military fashion, changed his clothes and went back on duty.
“I didn’t consider about hero or anything like that ’cause I’m a country boy,” he said. “I’m glad, not that I’m getting the praise or anything, but that somebody remembered that I did something good.”
Receiving a similar award, Marcia Bailey, drew thunderous applause from the audience after they heard that she single-handedly disarmed a gunman who had invaded her home and attacked her children.
“I am honoured to be receiving this award and I want to say thanks to everyone that has made this day possible for me,” she said.
“It was my children and I who were alone in the house and I have do defend them. I have to protect them. So I did what I had to do.”
The widow of Detective Constable Michael Francis, who fell in the line of duty, will also receive a special token to remember him by tomorrow. A posthumous Medal of Honour for Gallantry will be presented for Francis who tried to rescue a 15-year-old girl from a gang of youths who had kidnapped her and were demanding a $100,000 ransom.
Posing as one of the family members in an effort to exchange the money for the girl, Francis was fatally shot but managed to take out two of the kidnappers.
“I think he did it for his daughter, knowing how much he loved his daughter, and because he was a family man,” Francis’ widow Christine Francis told the Sunday Observer.
Ahward Sterling, the 30-year-old immigration officer who found $1.3 million in cash and cheques and returned it to its rightful owner, will be receiving the Medal of Honour for Gallantry. Sterling, whose good deed was reported by the Daily Observer in May this year, had received high commendation for his honesty and for turning down a $100,000 reward for his act of nobility.
“I’m really happy,” he told the Sunday Observer yesterday. “I’ve done this thing to show Jamaica that there are still persons who are honest. And I hope that what I’ve done and the award that I’ve received will encourage others to pursue excellence in different ways.”
The other honouree, Harold Benjamin is a living testament to the fruits of hard work and perseverance. Benjamin, a semi-retired officer in the Department of Education in the United Kingdom, will receive the Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service for his work in promoting the interests of Jamaica in the United Kingdom.
The story of Benjamin’s rise from being a tailor in Yallahs, St Thomas to become an education officer in the United Kingdom is inspiring.
Benjamin recounted that after working as a tailor for most of his teenage years he went to the United Kingdom in March 1962 and shortly afterwards began going to school.
“I moved to England, went to university and studied [a] work-study [programme]. The first job I had I worked nights then went to college in the day time, but it pays off, you know,” he said.
After a few stints working for private companies, Benjamin joined the city council and from there moved to the Education Department, helping to provide education to persons mainly over age 18, and there he remained for over 25 years.
Benjamin kept building upon his academic credentials and eventually branched off into community service where he began lobbying on behalf of Jamaican interests in the UK.
davisv@jamaicaobserver.com