BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – POLICE COMMISSIONER Dr. Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn will be making attempts to have the names of the four members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force who were killed in the line of duty added to a memorial wall in Washington DC.
The Commissioner informed SKNVibes of his intentions late last week following a ceremony to honour the memory of the officers: Corporal George Robinson who died in 1986, Constable Franklyn Williams in 1989, Superintendent Jude Matthew in 1994 and Sergeant Clive Benjamin who died in 2006.
The ceremony was held at the parking lot facing the southern entrance of the Basseterre Police Station and featured remarks from Commissioner Walwyn and Ambassador Astona Browne, while the reading of the profiles of the fallen officers were done by their colleagues.
Following each presentation, a representative of each family accepted a plaque in honour of their fallen relative.
Questioned by this publication about the motivation behind the “first-time” event, the Commissioner explained that elsewhere fallen officers are honoured and St. Kitts-Nevis should be no different.
“Every year in May in the United States, police are celebrated...the ones who have passed in the line of duty. I view St. Kitts as no different than any other place that we should honour our fallen officers, and I was trying to get this done last year. It didn’t happen but this year I was very adamant that it was going to be done. So it was within this month that I pushed it and made sure it happened.”
In addition to hosting an annual Memorial Ceremony, the Top Cop said he would work towards having the four officers memorialised in Washington DC.
“What we are going to do next year, we are going to go to Washington DC. And in the national arm of law enforcement there is a memorial, where we will try to place our names of our fallen officers on that wall. So every year in May, anybody from St. Kitts can go by there and they would see these officers’ names on the wall.”
Near the end of the ceremony, a gun salute was given by a 12-member firing party.
