113 J’cans get honours today
AGAINST the backdrop of pomp and pageantry, 113 Jamaicans will today receive national awards – five of them the nation’s fourth highest honour, the Order of Jamaica (OJ) – at the traditional investiture ceremony at King’s House.
The ceremony, which follows military traditions, is expected to attract hundreds of Jamaicans who attend to support relatives and associates being paraded before the nation as examples of selfless good works and the best of Jamaica on National Heroes’ Day.
The five persons receiving OJs are educator Dr Rae Davis, manufacturer Ray Hadeed, businesswoman Beverley Lopez, sports administrator Teddy McCook, and medical doctor Professor Owen Morgan.
A total of 31 Jamaicans will be conferred with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD), among them Keith ‘Bob Andy’ Anderson, for his contribution to the development of Reggae music; Dr Kenrick Barrow, for services to medicine and medical education; Kenneth Benjamin, for contribution to business and entrepreneurship; Asley “Grub” Cooper, OD, for his contribution to music; Bishop Charles DuFour, for service in the fields of religion and social development, and Dr William Foster, for voluntary service to Jamaican children in the field of open-heart surgery.
Other recipients of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander are: Newton James, Dr Pauline Knight, Lennie Little-White, Dr Blossom O’Meally-Nelson, Justice Seymour Panton, Kent Pantry, Dahlia Repole, Dr Cezley Sampson, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas, Rosemarie Vernon, Dr Barrington Wint, and former Jamaica Labour Party government minister and manufacturer Douglas Vaz.
The late Ferdinand Adolphus Buxton-Thompson will be awarded the CD posthumously for his sterling contribution to the development of education in Jamaica.
The Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer (OD) will go to 43 Jamaicans, including Wesley Barrett; athletics coach Steven Francis; musician and singer Boris Gardiner; veteran record producer Lloyd “King Jammy” James; sportsmen Neville Myton and Renford Pinnock, and singer Glenroy “Ernie” Smith.
Three persons will receive the Badge of Honour for Gallantry. They are: Harold Bailey, Marcia Sutherland-Bailey and Daliah Dumont. A fourth person, Detective Constable Michael Francis will be presented posthumously with the Medal of Honour for Gallantry.
In separate messages issued on the weekend, Governor-General Kenneth Hall, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Opposition Leader Bruce Golding asked Jamaicans to examine what they had done to ensure the preservation of their heritage, as the nation marks Heritage Week.
The leaders also cautioned Jamaicans not to lose sight of the significance of the struggles of the National Heroes.