The Story of My Barbados Family
Scroll down for an informal pictorial family history
In 1964 Herbert was tasked with opening a branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in St Vincent, now known as St Vincent and the Grenadines. He sailed Aurora from Barbados to St Vincent.
I think that this is a photo of the bank.
We were very happy in St Vincent. Everybody was very friendly and made us feel very welcome.
Our father, Herbert, had a wooden sailboat called Aurora. I think it was about twenty seven feet long. When Herbert was tasked with opening a new branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in St. Vincent, he was not going to leave his boat in Barbados!
The above shows Aurora entering the Careenage, Bridgetown. Herbert kept the boat at the Royal Barbados Yacht Club, as it was then known. The boat was brought to Bridgetown to do the required paperwork before leaving for St. Vincent.
St. Vincent was a hundred miles away across deep open ocean. Herbert made the trip navigating with a compass and a transistor radio!
I strongly desired to go on this adventure, but I was only thirteen and I had a habit of falling overboard!
At fifteen Anthony was chosen to crew. The others were Jacques Baldini, cousin Harold Jones and of course, Herbert.
Most of our school days were spent at our grandparents’ home, Windermere, in St. John, Barbados. We did fly to St. Vincent for most vacations. There we had many friends and enjoyed the parties and the fishing.
