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- GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE MARCH OF 1949 OBSERVED
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- British Virgin Islanders took time out this week to remember that historic
moment back in 1949 when their forefathers agitated for the establishment
of an elected Legislative Council in the territory.
-
- It was on November 24th, 50 years ago that Mr. Theodolph Faulkner,
a fisherman from Anegada, made the trek to Tortola to bring his sick wife
to the hospital in a seaplane. Angered by the lack of medical assistance
on his own island, he was further incensed by problems encountered at the
Cottage Hospital, before it was named Peebles Hospital.
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- According to accounts, Mr. Faulkner, an articulate man, began to air
his grievances at nightly meetings in the
- Old Market Square (now the Sir Olva Georges Plaza). More and more Virgin
Islanders gathered to listen to him passing on their own gripes. Virgin
Islanders' anti-government dissatisfaction was coupled with a desire for
the
- removal of then Commissioner J. A. C. Cruikshank.
-
- Mr. I. Glanville Fonseca and Mr. Carlton deCastro joined him on the
platform and together, they decided to
- stage a large demonstration march to present their demands to the Commissioner.
On November 24th, 1949, more than 1, 500 people, led by Messieurs Faulkner,
Fonseca and deCastro, marched through Road Town. Two petitions were circulated
for the marchers to sign, one asking for the removal of Mr. Cruikshank
and the other asking for an elected Legislative Council.
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- The petition for Commissioner Cruikshank's removal was ignored but
plans began to be laid for the
- establishment of Ministerial Government. Lord Baldwin, the then Governor
of the Leeward Islands, of which the BVI was a part, appointed Mr. Howard
Penn as Chairman of a Constitutional Committee to make recommendations
for an elected Legislative Council for the BVI.
-
- The Constitutional Committee was comprised of leading men from every
large village in Tortola, Virgin Gorda,
- Anegada and Jost Van Dyke. After full discussions, they recommended
a Constitution similar to the one then in
- force in Montserrat, another British Dependent Territory. They recommended
that the vote be restricted to males
- over 21 who met certain property and literary qualifications.
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- In 1950, the General Legislative Council of the Leeward Islands passed
the Leeward Islands Act No. 1 of 1950,
- establishing the conditions for the constitution of a locally elected
membership system. Mr. Faulkner went on to
- serve two terms in the new Legislative Council, 1954 - 1957 and 1960
- 1963.
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- In commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the March of 1949 the Government
Information Service produced a radio feature and distributed flyers outlining
a historical perspective of the event. The celebration was to be one of
the activities to mark Culture Week '99, but the week had to be postponed.
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