PAGE 229
…the ‘hot-headed’ Lock should have been dropped…
Swanton, Adventure, p.105; Rostron, Daily Express, 24 February 1954, p.8.
Ditton agreed: ‘The Surrey left-arm spinner has been going through a difficult patch recently, both in bowling and fielding. That he is in the side at the moment is purely on his reputation, and in the hope that he will regain his form’ (Gleaner, 24 February 1954, p.10).
‘is officially announced as having a skin rash’ … ‘local political reasons’
Rostron, Daily Express, 24 February 1954, p.8.
Pairaudeau says he was genuinely ill…
Telephone interview with author, 28 February 2015.
…and Stollmeyer would have wanted his closest comrade beside him
Stollmeyer had also been upset by the decision of the BG selectors to drop Gomez for the India Test the year before.
PAGE 230
‘wryly guessed what would have been said of me if England…’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.107.
‘I was never more determined, as W.G. Grace used to say…’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.107.
‘conditioned by some admirable West Indian bowling and fielding’
Swanton, Adventure, p.108.
Bannister concurred: ‘The West Indies bowling was decidedly tight, supported by agile and often brilliant fielding (Trinidad Guardian, p.1). As did the Argosy: ‘Due deference must be paid to the accurate bowling and snappy fielding of the West Indies team’ (p.1). And Ross Hall: ‘Not for many a long Test day have I seen men bowling so accurately to their field’ (Daily Mirror, p.13).
Off the latter he allowed himself a couple of boundaries…
‘The hits to be remembered were two fours by Hutton off Worrell (who has lost pace since 1950), one a force wide of mid-on, the other a cover drive of the authentic vintage’ (Swanton, Adventure, p.108).
Ten minutes before lunch, he was bamboozled by Ramadhin.
Everybody agreed that Watson had been mystified, but there were different views as to which way the ball turned.
White thought Ramadhin has set Watson up with a series of balls that ‘turned away from the bat’, and then ‘dropped the one that cut back the other way’ (News Chronicle, p.8).
Rostron thought Watson had ‘completely’ misread a ‘slight but distinct leg-break’ (Daily Express, p.8). Bannister also thought the ball was a ‘leg-break’ (Trinidad Guardian, p.1).
‘His face registered a suspicion of mystery…’
Frank Birbalsingh, e-mail to the author, 16 May 2018.
the significant detail of loud barracking
As noted by many reporters, Ditton giving a particularly colourful flavour: ‘The crowd, perhaps the biggest one has yet seen in the West Indies, began to give the slow handclap and a couple of most vociferous characters just in front of the press box issued a stream of instructions to Hutton as to how he should treat the bowling’ (Gleaner, p.10).
Hall thought England’s slow progress ‘produced some of the loudest barracking of the tour’ (Mirror, p.13).
PAGE 231
‘plumb’ lbw
White, News Chronicle, p.8; Dick Murray, Trinidad Guardian, p.12.
…both remembered that as the series progressed they found it easier…
Hutton…was doing things his way and grinding the bowlers down
PAGE 232
‘lacked all the spark of enterprise’
Rostron, Daily Express, p.8.
‘shattering’ … ‘will be killed stone dead in these parts of the Empire’
Crawford White, News Chronicle, p.8.
Dick Murray thought ‘England gave another disgusting display of batting on a perfect Bourda Wicket’ (Trinidad Guardian, p.12).
‘system’ … ‘If it be marvelled that anyone so magnificently equipped …’
Swanton, Adventure, p.107.
The batsman thought he ‘perhaps’ lost concentration…
As reported by Bannister, who asked Compton about his dismissal at lunch (Trinidad Guardian, p.1). Hayter noted a mid-pitch conference 20 minutes before lunch where the batsman were ‘apparently deciding to play for safety until the interval’ (p.3).
Fingleton implies that Compton had also got himself out trying to play safe for his captain as an interval approached in the Coronation Ashes (p.180).
PAGE 233
‘the best leg-spinner I have ever seen Ram produce on a West Indies wicket’
‘even had time to cast a cheerful grin in my direction’
…what he acknowledged was a ‘sitter’
Wardle … mixing beefy hitting with cheeky running
Swanton found it fascinating how the ‘alibis’ for slow scoring dissolved…
Adventure, p.112.
PAGE 234
Ramadhin’s ‘brilliant marathon of bowling’
Watson, Double International, p.60.
‘an amusing demonstration of West Indian exuberance’
Swanton, Adventure, p.111.
‘gaily dancing calypsos and mambos’
Rostron, Daily Express, p.8.
the fact he slipped in his delivery stride
Cricket Merry-Go-Round, p.95.
But, in his next autobiography five years later, Statham explained the delivery, which Worrell would not have reached with ‘two bats’, as the result of the new ball moving so much, ‘almost of its own accord’ (Flying Bails, p.91).
Stollmeyer admitted he hardly saw the ‘beauty’…
Everything Under the Sun, p.147.
Hutton and Evans both compared it to … Adelaide in 1947
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.108: ‘Stollmeyer went to a ball which both Evans and I put in the same class as Bedser’s famous delivery to Bradman in 1947 at Adelaide.’
PAGE 235
‘The best ball he ever bowled? You have to drag it out of him…’
Statham, as reported in this tribute by Frank Keating.
…by his own admission, with the same counter-attacking intent
Island Cricketers, p.91: ‘I intended to play my normal game’.
‘calculated risk’ … ‘dangerously short range’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.107.
a plan Statham abetted with a well-directed bouncer
Graveney admired Statham’s use of the bouncer, ‘which he bowled only occasionally but which was perfect, rising up under the batsman’s chin’ (Cricket over Forty, p.142).
‘Only the leg wicket was left standing…’
White, News Chronicle, p.6.
‘I tried to blast Statham, but he beat me with sheer pace…’
Walcott, as recorded by Rostron in his match report (Daily Express, p.8).
Hutton recounted the dismissal with the dry satisfaction …
Fifty Years, p.108.
However, he fails to mention the fact that the tactic had been first adopted in the MCC v Barbados game when Compton was acting captain.
‘his drenched shirt sticking to his body, his neckerchief flying’
Swanton, Adventure, p.117.
Birbalsingh rated Statham’s effort ‘as magnificent a spell of aggressive, penetrating, controlled fast bowling as was ever seen on the hard, true surface of Bourda Green (Rise, p.86).
‘an error of judgment’
Stollmeyer, Everything Under the Sun, p.147.
Writing the next winter, when there were further controversies about team selection for the BG Test, the Australian journalist Pat Landsberg suggested the omission of King had arisen because selectors ‘decided from off the spot that the wicket at Bourda would not be conducive to pace bowling’ (Kangaroo Conquers, p.95) – but I am not sure this is right given that Stollmeyer’s streamlined panel was in operation in 1953/54.
PAGE 236
‘the mother and father of all tropical storms’
Flying Bails, p.90.
‘We spent our time in the pavilion laughing our heads off…’
Flying Bails, p.90.
He noted the pitch was sweating…
Bannister (Trinidad Guardian, p.1): ‘Hutton tells me when he put his hand under the covers between the rains it was as hot as a furnace and the pitch was sweating freely.’
Hutton was a neurotic pitch-reader, in a Yorkshire tradition which stretches back at least as far back as Rhodes and Robinson, and as far forward as Illingworth and Boycott.
Hutton also confessed to sleepless nights…
Fifty Years, p.110.
Hutton told Bannister he would be placing an order for raincoats…
As reported in Sunday Guardian, 28 February 1954, p.1; an anecdote repeated in Cauldron.
‘a poor compliment to the sportsmanship of Watson’
Bannister, Sunday Guardian, p.2.
PAGE 237
‘In between overs he looked with a curious mixture…’
Frank Birbalsingh, e-mail to the author, 16 May 2018.
‘just flicked the outside of the leg stump and very quietly dislodged only one bail’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.137.
According to Bannister, Weekes apologised to the England manager…
Cauldron, p.101.
Weekes insists he did not hear a ‘death rattle’ and finds it strange…
Telephone interview with author, 31 January 2018.
While Cowdrey thought Evans ‘the fairest cricketer I have played with’, wicket-keepers have been known to indulge in such dark arts. The tribute in Beyond a Boundary to the Stingo keeper Pigott notes the ‘legend’ of his ‘being able to flick a bail if the ball was passing very close to the wicket and might miss’ (p.73).
diving ‘half swallow’ to the ball
Crocker, Daily Chronicle leader article, reprinted in Trinidad Guardian, 26 March 1954, p.7.
the custom of Caribbean groundsmen to water the wicket-holes
Hayter noted, in an account which may not quite square with Statham’s, that Stollmeyer’s stump had been sent ‘flying 10 yards’ the previous day (Times, 27 February 1954, p.4).
On the next tour, Swanton noted that local groundsmen soaked the stump holes so that ‘the crowd have the satisfaction of seeing them uprooted’ even by spinners (West Indies Revisited, p.142).
placing himself and Bailey
Some reports name Compton as the other silly fielder next to Bailey but Hayter names Hutton (Times, 27 February 1954, p.4).
PAGE 238
‘Tony Lock of Kennington Oval’
Bannister, Sunday Guardian, p.2.
Statham recalled being ‘on his knees’ with exhaustion…
White thought ‘great-hearted Brian Statham bowled himself to a standstill’ (News Chronicle, )
I think it was about the second ball of the over, lovely thick outside edge, straight to Denis, knee height. Denis held one knee together with one hand and tried to catch it with the other, and put the thing down, and I was really annoyed and sort of snatched the sweater at the end of the over and said, ‘That’s me finished,’ and Denis knew it. And Denis recalls the incident quite frequently, I’m given to understand! (Dellor, Lost Voices).
Graveney remembered that ‘one of the few times I have seen Statham really annoyed’ was when Dexter persisted with the leg-spin of Barrington in the third Test against Australia in 1962/63 (Tom Graveney on Cricket, p.131).
Compton … seemed to have made a lackadaisical effort…
White thought the catch was ‘one of the simplest’ offered in the match (News Chronicle). Bannister thought Compton had moved ‘sluggishly’ (Sunday Guardian, p.2).
‘I raced in, picked up and threw in to Godfrey Evans …’
May, A Game Enjoyed, p.58.
‘It came with a bang right into my gloves over the wicket’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.138.
PAGE 239
Shan Razack was left awestruck by May’s ‘feline’ piece of fielding
Razack, ‘My First Test Match’, a Guyana journal article of 2009. I was going to put his full description of May’s fielding into the body of the book before I realised he had lifted it verbatim from Michael Manley’s description of Sobers in the fifth Test match (see History, p.106): ‘The whole thing was done with a feline quality; with that fluidity that is the hallmark of the athlete who goes beyond skill into some other extraordinary realm of unconscious co-ordination.’
‘hopelessly short’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.108.
‘half-way down the wicket’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.124.
‘four or five yards’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.138.
‘three’ yards
I am taking the rough average of his first estimate – ‘at least a yard’ (Cricket Merry-Go-Round, p.94) – and his second – ‘four, I should say at a guess’ (Flying Bails, p.84).
‘perhaps a couple of yards’
Swanton, Adventure, p.119.
According to Crawford White, Mcwatt ‘admitted to me he was two yards out’ (News Chronicle). Rostron was another to report the keeper’s comment: ‘I was at least two yards out when the wicket was broken’ (Daily Express, p.8).
to ‘a yard and a half’
although he later changed his tune to ‘two or three yards’ (Heart of Cricket, p.70)
‘a yard’
Bailey, Wickets, Catches and the Odd Run, p.190.
‘Umpire Menzies’s finger lifted skywards before the ball…’
Crocker, Daily Chronicle leader article, reprinted in Trinidad Guardian, 26 March 1954, p.7.
‘someone yelled disapproval…’ … ‘the mood of the crowd developed quickly…’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.125.
‘the whole thing just took off from nothing’
Robin Wishart, interview with the author, 15 February 2019.
The Cruel Sea … Malta Story
Advertisements in The Gleaner in January 1954 show that The Cruel Sea was playing at the Carib and Malta Story at the Palace.
‘timely wit’ … ‘Married men to field close to the wicket…’
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.61.
‘if you hit the ball down there, Sonny…’
My wording is taken from Bailey, Wickets, Catches and the Odd Run, p.190. Graveney tells the anecdote himself in his interview for England’s Finest.
PAGE 240
‘Len never had a greater moment’ … ‘He was cool, nerveless, courageous …’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.125. [Compton’s ellipsis.]
‘magnificent’ … ‘The simple action of the dour strong-minded England captain…’
Bannister, Cauldron, p.95.
‘delightful story’
Bailey, Wickets, Catches and the Odd Run, p.190
‘a determination not to allow the crowd to control the situation’
Hutton, Just My Story, p.57
‘one corner of his astute cricket brain’
Wardle, Happy Go Johnny, p.134.
PAGE 241
‘showed little interest in staying’
Graveney seemed to specialise in jokes about Ramadhin’s reaction to the riot, saying that he left the crease after his dismissal b Laker with ‘undisguised alacrity’ (Heart of Cricket, p.70).
Palmer rang Government House…
Bannister, Cauldron, p.104.
‘considerable tension in the atmosphere’
Ditton, Gleaner, p.1.
‘complete silence’ … ‘bottle-throwing’ section
Hall, Daily Mirror, p.13.
It was perfectly normal practice for a batsman with his eye in…
For example, Hutton had gone in again against West Indies at The Oval in 1950 – although some thought this was Brown’s idea and that the batsman wanted to rest.
Bray thought Stollmeyer ‘more than a little lucky’…
Port of Spain Gazette, p.1. [I have inserted the word ‘a’ as I presume its omission was a typo.]
PAGE 242
The appeal against Holt was extremely confident
According to Hall, ‘Evans threw up the ball with a shout that was more a statement of fact than an appeal’ (Daily Mirror, p.13). White thought the England fielders were ‘flabbergasted’: ‘The snick could be heard all over the ground.’
Graveney … later condemned ‘compensatory’ umpiring decisions…
Heart of Cricket, p.171.
PAGE 243
‘Jim admitted to me afterwards that he only “asked”…’
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.92. [I have changed the word order of the quotation very slightly to fit better into the sentence.]
But Bannister thought the ball had gone ‘straight through’ (Trinidad Guardian, p.2) and White agreed Walcott was trapped ‘right back on his wicket with his legs in front’.
‘the grace of a beneficent Providence’
Swanton, Adventure, p.126.
The Argosy described Atkinson having ‘a most uncomfortable over against Lock, surviving two confident appeals for leg-before’ (p.6).
‘Len isn’t one for showing his feelings…’
Wardle, Happy Go Johnny, p.135.
PAGE 244
‘no intention of puddling about’
Swanton, Adventure, p.126.
‘with admirable sportsmanship and good humour’
Swanton, Adventure, p.130.
‘for the much criticised Len Hutton’
Ditton agreed: ‘First things first. All credit must be given to Len Hutton who, despite his many critics, was unshaken in his confidence’ (Gleaner, 4 March 1954, p.1).
Best congratulations to you all on a well-deserved victory…
Presumably Hutton proudly showed this telegram to journalists, as several of them reproduced it, including Hayter in The Times.
PAGE 245
Swanton thought that the Georgetown riot of 1954 ‘quite paled’…
West Indies Revisited, p.104. [I have taken the liberty of changing a tense from ‘pales’ to ‘paled’]
being adjudged run out by a ‘Chinese’ umpire (this time Eric Lee Kow)
In 1954, it was the ‘Indian’ umpire Menzies, at square leg, who gave McWatt out but the umpire at the other end was the ‘Chinese’ Gillette.
the bottles ‘remained intact’ at Bourda before they were thrown
Statham, Flying Bails, p.90. Compare Trueman, Fast Fury, p.170.
returned fire with what Graveney thought was a decent left-arm throw
Cricket Through the Covers, p.118.
Hutton said he would ‘never forget’ the look on May’s face…
Hutton, Just My Story, p.56.
Watson remembered the umpire ‘shaking with fright’…
As reported in Fifty Years, p.109.
Trueman thought the situation was ‘really dangerous’
Freddie Trueman Story, p.41.
Wardle ‘truly nasty’
Happy Go Johnny, p.133.
Graveney chuckled about Ramadhin being ‘terrified’ …
Interviewed by Martin-Jenkins on England’s Finest.
‘I thought we’d had our chips’
Lock, quoted in Kirwan Ward’s biography, p.29.
‘No, it was really bad’
Sir Everton Weekes, telephone interview with the author, 31 Janaury 2018.
‘the first demonstration of its kind in the West Indies…’
Cozier, Fifty Years of Test Cricket, p.33.
PAGE 246
the ‘unfortunate bottle throwing incident’
Nicole, West Indian Cricket, p.191.
‘In those days it was quite outstanding to have something like that happen’
Miller, Charles Palmer, p.96.
‘unknown in modern times’ … ‘immense’
May, A Game Enjoyed, p.58.
‘We think it was an instance of mob psychology…’
As reported in Robinson, Wildest Tests, p.51.
…a single idiot ‘high in his cups’
Dos Santos, as reported in Trinidad Guardian, 26 March 1954, p.6.
European immigrants were renowned for their hard drinking…
strong liquor ‘almost universal’ in the black communities of Demerara
See also Naipaul, Middle Passage, p.128.
a ‘rum-consuming culture’
Seecharan, Indo-Westindian Cricket, p.76.
‘big crowd at the booth’
Razack, ‘My First Test Match’.
‘it was extraordinary what some of those boys would bet on…’
Miller, Charles Palmer, p.95. Compare May, p.56.
At the start of his history of West Indian cricket, Christopher Nicole suggested betting was central to West Indian cricket, especially the custom of side bets on ‘anything at all’ (pp.12-13). Constantine gave various examples of such wagers in the 1930s: ‘One shilling Holmes comes out of the pavilion before Hammond’ (Cricket in the Sun, pp.71-72).
Bannister noticed a three-card-trick stall doing brisk trade…
PAGE 247
from his interactions with the crowd, Wardle realised…
Wardle, Happy Go Johnny, p.134: ‘While I was on the boundary, I was politely informed that I’d better get more wickets in the match than my opposite number, Valentine. This, luckily, I did.’
‘a nice situation…’ … ‘There must have been quite a number of people…’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.124.
‘a little spare money for rum or gambling…’
Jagan was one of many in the Caribbean to ridicule this deposition: see The West on Trial, p.84.
‘Some of these men have no fixed address…’
As reported in Robinson, Wildest Tests, p.51.
‘now famous’ … ‘in its right perspective’, ‘no incident…’, ‘no more than…’
Worrell, Cricket Punch, p.85.
PAGE 248
‘misunderstood this local custom’
Worrell, Cricket Punch, p.85.
even his friend Evans realised could have inflamed the situation…
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.139.
But Worrell and Christiani are the only witnesses to suggest…
Christiani, interviewed by Birbalsingh in Guyana and the Caribbean, p.134: ‘A single bottle was thrown on the field close to Compton. He threw it back into the crowd, and that is when other bottles and missiles came. Hutton then called his men into the centre of the field.
not having made themselves ‘the most popular of characters’
Worrell, Cricket Punch, p.85.
as did the equally anglophile Thomson in his report for The Cricketer
Spring Annual, p.16: ‘Disgusting as this outburst undoubtedly was, no missile was directed at any of the English players or the umpires, as readers of some of the English papers might have every reason for believing.’
MCC’s reputation for bad sportsmanship
It must be admitted that even in his first account of the demonstration in 1957, Walcott did ‘not think that it was aimed at the MCC players so much as at the umpire…’ (my italics). But he was definitely placing much of the blame on the tourists’ ‘doubtful sportsmanship’. When Walcott wrote his first autobiography, he was effectively a Booker’s employee. He was doing extraordinary work bridging the cricketing gap between Demerara and Berbice and would not have wanted to emphasise regional or racial divisions in the local population. His insistence that it was ‘wildly improbable’ local politics caused the disturbance paradoxically makes him focus his fire on the country where Booker’s directors were based.
Trueman’s ‘little speech’ …
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.91.
Menzies had been ‘involved in two other decisions…’
Walcott, Sixty Years, p.51.
Christiani’s reluctance to walk ‘may have been unwise’…
May, A Game Enjoyed, p.57.
‘had been low enough to justify his hesitation’
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.90.
‘as good a sportsman…’ … ‘thoughts’ … ‘An appeal for “bowled”…’ … ‘wildly improbable’
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.90.
the England captain waving ‘the “shut up” sign’ behind his back…’
Crocker, Daily Chronicle leader article, reprinted in Trinidad Guardian, 26 March 1954, p.7.
PAGE 249
‘flagrant breach of good manners’ … ‘this same crowd…’
The Daily Argosy, 28 February 1954, p.6.
‘vulgar expression of discontent’ … ‘jolly sporting fellows…’
Sunday Chronicle column, reprinted in Cauldron, pp.95-96.
‘worldwide unwelcome notoriety in other fields of endeavour’
Sunday Chronicle column, in Cauldron, p.95.
‘foreign-trained propagandists’ … ‘a spirit of hostility…’
These and the other quotations in this paragraph are from the Guiana Graphic’s leader article on the disturbance, reprinted in Cauldron, pp.96-97.
they were busy publishing – and indeed fabricating – any shred of evidence
It is now generally agreed, for example, that the secret Police Riot Manual found in Jaget Jagan’s office, which led to her being sentenced to six months in prison, had been planted there.
‘reporting that he had heard from various sources…’
Bannister, Cauldron, p.93.
PAGE 250
…the church’s institutionalised control of Guyanese schools
Naipaul noted the argument about church-aided schools in BG was rumbling on in the 1960s, observing that ‘it is only of late that the white collars of the church and the civil service have set off a certain nigrescence’ (Middle Passage, p.157)
Bourda Green was a traditional venue…
For example, on the first anniversary of the Enmore shootings, more than 2,000 Indians marched the 16 miles from the site of the disturbance to the Green for a memorial rally (Argosy, 17 June 1949).
‘the ridiculous practice of laying personal claim to the West Indian cricket team’
Rodney, ‘People’s Power, No Dictator’, published as a pamphlet in 1979, reproduced in Latin American Perspectives (p.66) and here.
The relevant sentence, in a section on the Burnham personality cult, reads: ‘Most West Indians were totally disgusted by the ridiculous practice of Burnham laying personal claim to Clive Lloyd and the West Indian cricket team’. [I have taken the liberty of not putting in ellipses for what I have left out as I felt they would be distracting.]
‘convinced that the demonstration was caused…’
Watson, Double International, p.61.
Lock… named it Bourda … the ‘old lion’ roaring back…
For Surrey and England, p.61
‘strolled off with studied nonchalance’ … ‘protective wall’ of ‘pavilion officials…’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.109.
PAGE 251
‘rich whites and their retainers’ … ‘as usual, local anti-nationalist people…’
Beyond a Boundary, p.220.
It is interesting, although James himself does not mention this detail, that in the 1960 Trinidad riot, Trueman and Statham were observed walking off ‘through an avenue’ of sailors ‘newly arrived from the Royal Yacht Britannia – ferrying Princess Margaret on a tour around the region’ (Ross, Through the Caribbean, p.118).
‘If I say he’s got to stand, he will stand’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.109.
…one of the ‘poker millionaires’ who played cards every cocktail-hour…
Robin Wishart, interview with the author, 15 February 2019.
GCC ‘was the domain of the Whites …’
Seegobin Ragbeer, Imperishable Memories, p.41.
Compare Seecharan, Sweetening Bitter Sugar, where GCC is described as the ‘epitome of white, affluent colonial society’ (p.51).
Deryck Bernard’s evocative short story ‘Bourda’ has a telling sentence as the effects of sun, rum and excitement take their toll even in the covered Northern Stand: ‘Also the sun now beat straight into our faces, unlike the faces of the big shots in the pavilion and the rich people in Flagstaff stand’ (Bowling was Superfine, p.130). Another short story in the same anthology, by Bernard Heydorn, presents the same contrast between ‘high-falutin’ pavilion and cramped popular stands, although he does also give us a character called Ozzie who always supported the English and was ashamed of the 1953/54 riot: ‘Yuh see why duh white maan don’ like to play in cockroach places like dese!’ (p.158).
Wishart also remembers Burnham … threatening GCC …drinking rum
Robin Wishart, interview with the author, 15 February 2019.
PAGE 252
Brown and black cricket administrators in BG … could not avoid connections with Booker
The fact that Ken Wisha was the first BG-born Executive Director of Booker might in less pressurised times have been held up as an example of increasing social mobility but he was still a Booker man working under Jones. Berkeley Gaskin’s wife was a political activist first for Jagan and then for Burnham but even she would soon be editing Bookers News.
‘the very paternalism of these efforts arouses more antagonism than it allays’
Smith, British Guiana, p.85.
Seecharan (p.355) records a comment from Jock Campbell as late as 1965 that he wanted to see Booker better integrated into local society to avoid its standing out – in the light of its past history – as an alien organisation superimposed on BG’.