| Queen’s College recently began celebrating its 165th anniversary last Friday, October 23.The school was founded 165 years ago by Bishop Percival Austin (1844), and has to date produced some of Guyana’s most notable personalities such as Justice Aubrey Bishop, Dr. Joseph Butchey, Dr. Hughley Hanoman, former Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis, many of the early founding members of the Guyana Defence Force, Government Ministers, doctors, Executive Presidents among others.Old students came from far and wide, one coming from as far as Sudan. The majority came from North America—New York, Washington, Canada, Florida—and from the United Kingdom. Some came from the numerous West Indies locations where they are based.Mnay had not come back home in almost five decades. They came this year,The school is still today recognized as Guyana’s top education institution, and has just this year produced the top CSEC student in the Caribbean.On Tuesday there was a welcoming cocktail party. The celebrations continued yesterday when a Grand Assembly was held in the QC Auditorium.A feature speech was provided by Old Boy, Dr Rupert Roopnarine, a 1961 Guyana Scholar and graduate of the school. Dr Roopnarine later graduated from the Cambridge University with a Masters and having captained the university’s Cricket team in his day.Dr Roopnarine reminisced on the old days, and noted that “the QC of today is not our QC of yesterday……. any more than the Guyana of today is the Guyana of yesterday.”Dr Roopnarine spoke of the influence of the colonial times on the school, of the fundamental importance of tradition and of the straightforward alterations that may be made on today’s society that can, if taken seriously, make this world a better place.“From early on we were instilled with the sense of responsibility to the traditions to which we were now heirs, traditions of scholarship in the classroom, prowess on the field of sports, and leadership within the group.“The programme was clear: as the cream of the crop, we were to be trained to take up our rightful place in the middle and upper echelons of the colonial hierarchy. We were the last of the colonially educated generations,Cheap Jerseys From China, the product of empire for the service of empire.”Dr Roopnarine made reference to several world shaping events that have since influenced the behaviour of many a society, both in Guyana and abroad.“Closer home, we are meeting today in the last week of October, almost 26 years to the day, when our Caribbean suffered its greatest trauma of modern times as the Grenadian revolution self-destructed in a storm of violence and murder that opened the way to the invasion by the United States armed forces.”“We can continue to let the worst of the past defeat the best of the present, or we can let the best of the past be marshaled against the worst of the present. Let our re-union be a celebration of the best and the healthiest of the values of the past.“If we can transmit this experience that shaped us, I believe we would have fulfilled our generational duty to the present.”The assembly saw many alumni donating trophies for many areas of school life, some of them academic and others in the area of sport.There was also the unveiling of three portraits—Clarence Trotz, Stanley Richard Reginald Allsopp and Doodnauth Hetram—all of them former Principal of the school. Dr Allsopp was the first Guyanese to serve as principal of the school. He was followed by Hetram.The reunion continues today with a Day Trip to the Skeldon Factory, and a Tuck Shop Lime on the lawns of the QC compound.Tomorrow there is a scheduled tour of the Diamond Estate, swimming, a buffet lunch and karaoke and games. |
