National Heroes Day in the Turks & Caicos Islands
Remembering James Alexander George Smith (“J.A.G.S.”) McCartney
He became Chief Minister, the highest position in the country and negotiated a new constitution which brought self determination for the Turks and Caicos Islands.
He was the founding leader, statesman and nation builder for the islands.
And he did all of this by the age of 31.
It’s an impressive list of accomplishments for someone who was born in 1945 in Grand Turk with a serious heart condition and died tragically in an airplane crash at the age of 35.
National Heroes Day in the Turks and Caicos
National Heroes Day in the Turks & Caicos Islands is held on the last Monday in May and celebrates the life of James Alexander George Smith (“J.A.G.S.”) McCartney, the first Chief Minister of the islands and a man who devoted his life to ensuring islanders had opportunities, education, equality and social justice.
“…simply committed to the vision that there must be freedom, justice and equality for all,” said Honorable Sharlene Robinson, PDM Party Leader in the video below.
This year, 2016, marks forty years since J.A.G.S. McCartney was elected Chief Minister and the United Kingdom granted the islands self-government. Events to commemorate this historic day are held May 30th throughout the islands.
On Grand Turks official ceremonies are usually held at the National Memorial Park. Presentations are made to unsung island heroes and wreaths are laid. On Providenciales there is a motorcade, travelling from downtown and along Leeward Highway, which kicks off the festivities followed by presentations and musical performances. t’s a national holiday when islanders join together to proudly wave the national flag and remember one of their own who epitomized a hero.
About James Alexander George Smith (“J.A.G.S.”) McCartney
J.A.G.S. McCartney was passionate about the rights, opportunities and issues facing people. He moved to Jamaica when still quite young so that he might get medical help for his heart condition because there wasn’t a specialist in the Turks and Caicos Islands. McCartney could have focused only on improving his health and living a slower paced life, but instead he became active in the struggle he saw all around him. At 17 he returned to the islands and created programs for the youth there. In his 20’s he worked in the Bahamas where he was actively involved in political events like the 1967 Grand Bahama Hotel Strike to improve workers’ conditions.
McCartney had a burning desire for change in his native country and wanted to be in the very midst of his own people’s struggles.
“I always believed that the closer to home you are, the better you understand the people,” said McCartney in this recording that commemorates his many accomplishments.
He founded the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) through which he worked to improve social and economic conditions, to unify the islands and to bring self governance. McCartney was what Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. were to their own countries.
Remembering A Hero
McCartney’s selfless attitude and commitment to his vision for his people impacted generations after him and his legacy continues to shine through his own family.
Says TCI Governor Peter Beckingham in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Governor’s Office’s facebook page post from May 26, 2015, “I have had the pleasure of working with three of his family, in the Integrity Commission, the Attorney General Chambers, and the Home Affairs Department. Their enthusiasm for work, which they must have derived from their parents, is a shining example to everyone in the Public Service, and in Turks and Caicos.”
In 2015 McCartney was given the title The Right Excellent J.A.G.S. McCartney recognizing his incomparable life efforts and contributions to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“He wasn’t afraid to step up to the plate as an elected leader,” states Yaa McCartney, daughter of the late Chief Minister in a release from the Turks and Caicos Islands Government Information Service (TCI-GIS). “He wasn’t afraid to do what he had to do for not himself, but for his people.”
J.A.G.S. McCartney, was a husband, father, leader, and statesman, but on May 30, 2016 he will be honoured once again as a national hero.
Villa del Mar wishes everyone a safe holiday in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
