Road Town, Tortola - Four persons received the BVI Badge of Honour at an Investiture Ceremony that was held in their honour at Government House earlier this week.
Mrs. Eugenie Donovan Glasgow, Mrs. Romalia Smith, Mr. Realdis Todman and Mr. J.C. Pierce, received the BVI Badge of Honour from His Excellency the Governor, Mr. David Pearey.
In his remarks the Governor expressed his delight to see so many persons in attendance for the important occasion. He explained that, “I am delighted because since I first arrived in the BVI, it has been my hope to revive on a permanent basis a very important tradition of awarding on a regular basis the Badge of Honour to very worthy citizens and people who live here in the BVI. It is in my view, and I am sure the view of others that we honour and recognise the stalwarts in our community.”
The Governor said, “Today, we have before us four exceedingly worthy recipients who are being rewarded and honoured for very different reasons but the one linking factor between the recipients of this award is the simple idea of service to the community and each one of these four have served the community very notably.”
“All of them share this common devotion to the community and share this common belief that service to the community is a critical factor in cementing us as a Territory and strengthening us as a Territory. For your service to the community we salute each one of you and I extend my heartfelt congratulations and thanks for the work that you have done with the community and I congratulate you for what I believe to be four seemingly deserving honours,” the Governor said.
The Governor paid tribute to the honours committee for the role they play in recommending the recipients. “I am deeply grateful for their hard work, long hours and the degree to which they take this process seriously. However, there is one crucial ingredient to this process of honouring citizens that is in a sense even more important than the work of the honours committee and that is of course the public,” the Governor said.
“I am encouraging the public to come forward with your proposals and ideas for honourees in our society because it is very critically important that this process starts with the people. It is not correct in my view that ideas should come down from the top they should very much come from the base of our society, the people who want to see their fellow citizens honoured,” the Governor said.
Chairman of the BVI Honours Committee Mr. Reuben Vanterpool congratulated the honourees and explained to the gathering the criteria for receiving the Badge of Honour.
He explained that, “The Badge of Honour may be presented to a Virgin Islander, or a person who has been an ordinary resident in the British Virgin Islands for not less than 10 years prior to the date of the award, and has provided entrepreneurial goods and or services within the Territory for over 20 years; served as an outstanding public servant with a notable degree of integrity and a high standard of service; performed a life threatening act of bravery; given notable humanitarian service to others in the community for a significant number of years; given meritorious voluntary service in Non-Governmental Organisations, or exceptional business or professional service to the community; and has been instrumental in bringing about significant changes within the public service.
Additionally, the recipient must be a respectable, law abiding citizen and will not be barred to recommendation based on the possession of other honours.”
Twenty-two persons have received the BVI Badge of Honour between 1989 and 2010.
The BVI Honours Committee, which is appointed by Cabinet, is responsible for identifying persons in the community for the honour. Once the committee has identified individuals the names are then submitted to Cabinet for consideration and approval and then to the Leader of the Opposition for his approval. His Excellency the Governor makes the final decision based on the recommendations received.
British Virgin Islands News