Agincourt

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Who were the true fighters of the Anguilla Revolution of 1967? I read in History Today News that a searchable database containing 250,000 service records of English soldiers who saw active duty in the latter phases of the Hundred Years War was published online yesterday, July 20^th 2009. The database is part of a research project about soldiers in English royal armies between 1369 and 1453 led by Dr Adrian Bell at the International Capital Market Association, University of Reading, and Professor Anne Curry from the University of Southampton.

Based on the study of historic records, such as the proceedings of the Court of Chivalry, muster rolls records in the National Archives at Kew, and archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, researchers have created complex profiles of individual soldiers in what is now considered England’s first professional army. The database notably includes the names of many archers who served with King Henry V at Agincourt, details of where individual soldiers fought and for how long, which campaigns they fought in, how much they were paid, who was ill and unable to fight, who was knighted and who advanced in rank as a result of military success.

Is it not amazing this kind of detail can be reproduced after over six hundred years?

Can we in Anguilla put together a similar database of the local militia who fought in our Anguilla Revolution forty-two years ago?

In the Anguilla of today there is hardly anyone of the Revolution era who does not claim to have risked their life to defend Anguilla. How many of them are fraudsters who ran off to St Kitts with the Customs records or whatever?

Even if the Peacekeeping Committee of 1967 had had a formal army, with pay and other records, some civil servant would have burned them by now, claiming they were confidential. Or, perhaps the space was needed in the filing cabinets. The truly confidential records, like the day books containing the most detailed records of people’s intimate medical conditions, when they farted, and when they had a bowel movement, were abandoned at the Cottage Hospital when it was vacated. They were rescued and donated to the National Archives. I hope they are still there in the room behind the court house. How much longer will they survive neglect and carelessness?

Who would have known otherwise that Neil Rogers acted as Dr Arjoon Jagan’s surgical assistant as he washed his hands and operated on patients in what we now call the good old days?

Archives

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Archives building about to be converted to a mess hall for members of the House of Assembly. There's been some talk on anguillatalk.com and the radio about what would become of the Forest Bay Customs House when the Conch Bay, now Fairmont, project is built. We have to pretend it's going to be built, because they claim to have sold $70 million worth of property.

On page 3 of last week's "Anguillian" there are some pictures of the proposed Blowing Point terminal that looks like it was designed by some people in Canada who don't understand hurricanes.

It also looks like something they'd build in Canada.

Do we want arriving tourists to think they're in Canada? Will putting two palm trees in front of the building change that? Is promoting traditional Anguillian design elements any of our business or should we outsource such issues to whatever loudmouth wants to use them to trash someone on a talk show?

And, now I hear that the archives building at the Court House is to be turned into a restaurant for the Members of Parliament's convenience. Is this progress or not? I suppose that we want them to be comfortable. Who cares about some old papers, anyway?

In 1980, I was walking across the Government Secretariat when I noticed Evalie Bradley burning some papers in a small bonfire. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “Col Roberts told me to burn the files from the Revolution to clear an old filing cabinet for him to use”. I went to see Ronald Webster and spoke to him about the importance of retaining Anguilla's archives for the future. He agreed and ordered the burning to stop. He appointed me Anguilla's first official archivist, on condition that it would not cost anything. Later that year, I had a line item of $1.00 inserted in the estimates for preserving the archives. I used the judicial department budget to purchase two filing cabinets. I filled them with the collection of the “Anguilla Beacon” donated by Atlin Harrigan, and other archival material. So far as I know the archives are all stored in the building in the Court House/House of Assembly complex to this day.

I fully expect they will now complete the job started, but left incomplete, by Col Roberts.

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