President Richards hails QRC

PRESIDENT George Maxwell Richards saluted his alma mater, Queen’s Royal College (QRC), during a ceremony at Crowne Plaza last Saturday, in which he was among 18 past students honoured at the Second Induction Ceremony of the college’s Hall of Honour. Recounting his schooldays, Richards hailed QRC for having a respect for sound tradition and wisely valuing what was good in the old before rushing into the new. “Quite apart from the high academic standard for which QRC stood from its inception, it also encouraged independent, individual thinking in the liberal tradition. This was certainly true in my time,” President Richards said. He explained that the school’s clubs, including the Literary and Debating Society, Drama Society, Musical Society, Science and Chess Clubs and Scouts and Cadets, helped to strike a healthy balance with academic pursuits.

“The character of the school has developed through its various societies and the people within and outside the school, who through the years have given their unstinting support”. Richards recalled that one of his fellow inductees (posthumous), Robert Stewart Aucher Warner, had at the opening of the new college building in 1904, expressed the hope that education the students received at QRC would make them good citizens. President Richards said Warner, a former Attorney-General and Captain of the West Indies cricket team, encouraged students to be good “tryers” and to do their duty throughout life. He recalled a remark made in 1970 that QRC should go co-educational, but said he was not expressing any opinion on the issue. The President urged QRC Old Boys to continue to contribute to the country, saying: “whatever the fortunes of QRC in the recent past, we Royalians must recognise that we have a continuing and important role to play in the evolution of our country.” “We must go back to our beginnings and recall the attention to scholarship for which the school was renowned.

“We must recapture the thrust for excellence and go forward building on the solid foundations that are still there.” The 18 inductees honoured included six deceased persons, receiving posthumous awards. The posthumous awardees were Robert Stewart Aucher Warner, Dr Frederick Patrick, Archdeacon Charles Doorly, Louis Blache-Fraser, Jeffrey Stollmeyer and Gerald Gomez. Other inductees honoured on Saturday were President Richards, Rev Clive Abdulah, Karl Hudson-Phillips QC, Lloyd Best, Geoffrey Holder, Peter Minshall, Lionel Seemungal, Wendell Mottley, Deryck Murray, Dr J O’Neil Lewis, Doddridge Alleyne and Roger Gibbon. Past inductees of this award included Dr Eric Williams, William Demas, CLR James, Rudranath Capildeo and Sir Vidia Naipaul.