MINISTRY OF EDUCATION SQUATTING ON QRC LAND

Old Boys of Queen’s Royal College are hoping that Government which is spending millions of dollars on an ambitious housing programme, including provision for the relocating of squatters, relocates the biggest squatter of all, the Ministry of Education, which today is occupying land long ago allocated to QRC and sorely needed for expansion of the school. Should the Education Ministry make its long announced shift to St Joseph and make the land which is rightfully Queen’s Royal’s, available to the college, this would allow for expansion of the school and provide accommodation for a possible additional 500 plus students.

In addition, many QRC Old Boys feel that the college’s old playing field — Pompeii — the King George V Park, which was commandeered by the United Kingdom Government in 1941, at the instance of the United States Government, to provide facilities for US troops during World War 11, should also be returned to Queen’s Royal. The American occupation of Pompeii, however temporary, was made possible under the terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement entered into between the UK and US Governments through which the Americans were granted the lease of specified areas for 99 years. Pompeii, Whitehall, sites on the Old Marine Square (now Independence Square), the area on Long Circular Road, Camp Ogden, today allocated to the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, were also taken over by the Americans, and were supposed to be returned within a reasonable time following on the cessation of the war.
Pompeii was returned to the Government, but the Government never returned it for use by Queen’s Royal. But I have strayed. A revised plan of Port-of-Spain and its suburbs prepared in 1925 and published by Muir, Marshall and Company, Port-of-Spain, defines the area of land allocated under deed to Queen’s Royal College, as bounded by Hayes Street to the North, Alexandra Street to the West, St Clair Avenue to the South and Maraval Road to the East. Queen’s Royal College, which had been at the old Prince’s (correct) Building for several years, was shifted to its present site in 1902, when the land became available as a result of the relocating of the old St Clair Government Farm. The colonial Government was understandably keen on deeding property for public institutions in much the same manner that this was done in the United Kingdom. The UK manner of doing business was their reference. So that the land at St Clair was deeded for use as a school and whatever went along with this concept. In turn, Queen’s Royal College was established by Ordinance, and official records show that the late Queen Victoria advised that she had “been pleased to signify her pleasure that the Collegiate Institution should be called the Queen’s Royal College.” The school had been named in her honour, and, interestingly, the advice to which I referred was sent on her birthday, May 24, 1870.

An “Historical Survey 1870-1945” of Queen’s Royal, published in QRC 100 in 1970, points out that “Through the intervention of Sir Courtenay Knollys, who was acting Governor, the area in Queen’s Park West was reserved for the College.” The facts are there. The Principal’s Quarters were in the middle of the Western end of the QRC grounds. The need to have quarters for the Principal was there as the Principals had been British imports. The Education Department would be housed at the North-Western end of the property, immediately to the North of the Principal’s quarters. I recall during my days at Queen’s Royal in the 1940s, adventuresome boys would, on a dare, scale the fence to the Principal’s yard and climb the fruit trees there. The fence was made of iron with menacing looking spikes at the top. One day a student who had climbed up one of the trees lost his footing, fell and was impaled on one of the iron spikes. But I have strayed. All of that area to the Western end, embracing the old Education Department, and to the South of it, has been occupied by the Ministry of Education for decades. Several years ago it was announced by Government that the Education Ministry would be relocated to St Joseph, as part of its strategy of decentralisation, that is not continue to concentrate all of the head offices of ministries in Port-of-Spain.

It is said that at a private meeting officials admitted that the Ministry of Education had been trespassing on QRC property. But the concern is that even though the Ministry’s head office may be removed from where it is today, that either it may insist on keeping some offices there, or that another Ministry may move in. It is imperative that the area be made free for expansion of Queen’s Royal, so that where feasible existing buildings can be modified to hold classrooms, or entirely new structures put up. There is the need to provide additional classroom space at Queen’s Royal to cater for hundreds more, who, qualified for entry, today put down the grand school as their first choice. Queen’s Royal has lost Pompeii. Deserving children should not be denied the opportunity, already lost to literally thousands, to access secondary education at what my generation, earlier generations and suceeding generations of fortunate children have saluted proudly as the “best school of all.” The motto of the alma mater is “Certant Omnes sed non omnibus palma,” which when translated into English means: “All struggle but not for all is the prize.” Government, however, should grant to generations of future secondary schoolchildren, who qualify and proudly aim at being part of a great liberal tradition, their wish.