Violet Gaul's Blog
This Sunday, May 13, 2012, my interview with Mr. A. O. Shirley, MBE airs on CBN Ch 51 at 8:00p.m and rebroadcast on Wednesday also at 8:00p.m and on Saturday at 8:00a.m. This is a very interesting conversation as Mr. Shirley gives an insight into his early years in government and his life in the Virgin Islands where he has lived all of his life.
You can also view this on livestream on www.cbnbvi.com –
Your comments and feedback are always appreciated
Did you know that the first Post Office in the Virgin Islands was established in its capital city of Road Town, Tortola in 1787. And in “1814 former postmaster and president’s clerk, Frederick Augustus Pickering became the first ‘coloured’ British Virgin Islander to act as President. On the 24th November 1949, a demonstration march of over 1,500 persons from all over the islands asked for the removal of then Commissioner J.A.C Cruickshank and for closer association with the United States Virgin Islands. The leaders of the demonstration, Theodolph Faulkner, Isaac G. Fonseca and Carlton DeCastro presented a petition expressing widespread grievances and demanding freedom and democracy. ” Their protest was apparently recognized as in July 1950, the Legislative Council of the Virgin Islands, which consisted of four members who were elected by the constituency, was reconstituted – and in 1960 the Office of Governor of the Leeward Islands, which was based in Antigua, was abolished and the Administrator (formerly Commissioner) of the Virgin Islands was given the powers of Governor. A new Constitution of the Virgin Islands became effective April 1967 – this provided a Ministerial System of seven elected members with the Hon. H. Lavity Stoutt (now deceased) as Chief Minister. (Specialised Stamp Catalogue of the British Virgin Islands, Edited by Giorgio Migliavacca)
The official name of the “BVI” is the “Virgin Islands.” The United States of America bought the Danish West Indies, which were St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix etc., in 1917 and because of the close proximity to the “Virgin Islands” these became known as the “United States Virgin Islands.” The “Virgin Islands” are a territory of the United Kingdom – people began to refer to them as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for ease of differentiation. THEN & NOW will use the official name of the BVI in all its communications – “VIRGIN ISLANDS”
Did you know that the first guest of this talk documentary, Mrs. Eugenie Todman-Smith was the Community Development Officer of the Virgin Islands in 1966 and one of only two women (the other one being, Ms. Pearl Varlack) out of a total of twenty four people who met with Dr. Mary Proudfoot, the constitutional commissioner appointed by the United Kingdom in 1966, to look into political conditions in the territory of the Virgin Islands. From the Proudfoot report a new constitution for the Virgin Islands was introduced. (Eugenia O’Neal) It was this constitution that in effect gave the territory full self governance.