Dear Guardian of our Heritage

The title of the 2019-2020 Parish Project being carried out by the St. Peter Parish Independence Committee (PIC), Ambassadors and Attendant is “Exploring Our Heritage: Enriching Communities”. By the end of this project, our aim is to ensure that residents of St. Peter will possess greater knowledge of the history of their parish and of its several heritage assets.

This campaign can therefore be seen as one of sensitizing St. Peter residents - and, by extension, our nation – hopefully resulting in our becoming much more conscious of where we have come from historically. In turn, this should cause us to develop a greater appreciation of our heritage, thus leaving us in a better position to chart our future with “pride and Industry” as “strict guardians” of our patrimony – whether built, cultural, sporting or Christian.

As the PIC continues the roll-out of Its Parish Project, we are now entering on the phase in which we wish to ensure that those who have contributed greatly and in various ways to the building of our heritage are recognized. This can be seen as a follow-up to our 2016 activity in which during our fiftieth anniversary of Independence, the PIC created the Rampus Awards which were presented to some fifty St. Peter residents in various spheres of endeavour for the outstanding contributions they have made to this parish.

One such contributor to the heritage of St. Peter is the late Speightstonian, Kenmore Nathaniel Ryestone “Doc” Husbands, former Member of Parliament for St. Peter, who, in 1948 became the first black speaker of the House Assembly. Being aware that the third oldest Parliament in the Commonwealth was established in Barbados in 1639 and realizing that it took a full three centuries before this landmark achievement was reached, the PIC is of the opinion that this gentleman should be honoured by having the Speightstown By-Pass Road renamed in his honour. This road actually passes in front of “Oldham’, the former residence of KNR himself.

Not only did KNR teach at the Speightstown Boys School but he was one of the pioneers of Adult Education within the northern catchment area as he taught lessons at his home as well. At the time when Sir Hugh Springer was General Secretary of the Barbados Workers Union, “Doc’ was his Asst. Gen. Sect’y. He served as Speaker from 1948 until 1956 and again from 1958 until 1961. His relatively long parliamentary career was marked by his crossing the floor in 1968 to become a member of the Democratic Labour Party and Minister of Agriculture.

Within the cadre of our Parish Project, the St. Peter PIC wishes to submit to Government a proposal/petition seeking to achieve the above-mentioned end either during Black History/St. Peter’s Vision 2020 month (February) or around the May 28th birth date of Mr. Husbands.

We are hereby seeking your cooperation in this venture by asking you (a concerned resident of St. Peter and a guardian of the heritage of this parish) to be one of the five hundred or more persons signing this petition.