Bucket Bill

By William Forde

A Jamaican story from the land where the sun shines down on every man, woman and child in equal measure; a safe harbor where hope springs eternal in the hearts of all good people and where the river of respect runs deep.

This story is set in Trelawney, sometime between 1950 and 1962. The story is one of three stories that Nelson Mandela praised as being ’wonderful’. I extend my appreciation to the honorable Royland Barrett, the Custos of Trelawney (Mayor), for the factual background information he provided about the history and development of Trelawney and its capital town of Falmouth. The honorable Royland Barrett acts as representative to the Governor General of Jamaica and her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

A special 'thank you' also to my dear friend, Mr Basil G. Smith, JP. Basil is a Jamaican whose love of the country and its people is matched only by his lifelong commitment to the educational progress of Trelawney children.

In mid 2000, Nelson Mandela phoned and congratulated me upon the writing of my African story, ‘The Valley of the Two Tall Oaks’ and my Indian story, ‘Indian Dreams Come True’. Both stories were published in the book entitled, ‘Two Worlds-One Heart’. Shortly after, the broadcast of a TV item on ‘News 24’ referred to Nelson Mandela’s praise of these two stories and identified me as the author of them.

During 2000, while my family and I were on vacation in Falmouth, Trelawney, Jamaica, the hotel catering manager approached me after confirming my identity as the author whom Nelson Mandela had praised. He invited me to meet the Custos of Falmouth and some other Government representatives.

I was invited to visit the 32 schools in Falmouth, the old slave capital of Jamaica and extended my period on vacation. I was then asked to write a story that could be identified by Falmouth residents as being germane to their historical background. As the vast majority of young Jamaicans sadly have one dream today: to leave Jamaica because of its poor economic prospects and to travel to the U.S.A for a better life and to earn an American dollar instead of a Jamaican dollar, I researched one area where the people of Falmouth came ahead of the people of New York.

I learned that Falmouth, Jamaica had piped water before New York, America and this historical fact was the theme around which ‘Bucket Bill’ was anchored. Because the Falmouth schools needed basic educational resources in which they were grossly deficient (ie paper, pencils and books etc), and because I had for many years attempted to combat racism and promote a greater understanding between different cultures, religions and nationalities, I decided to engage in a project that assisted all these things in the most meaningful of ways.

I researched the story of ‘Bucket Bill’, which I later discovered that Nelson Mandela also liked and declared as being ‘wonderful’. I then arranged for a printing contact of mine to print off thousands of copies of the book at cost. I then identified 32 primary schools in West Yorkshire each to pay for the printing cost of 100 books (3,200 in total), which were shipped across to Jamaica and were sold within the 32 Falmouth schools for the economic benefit of those schools. I then entered into a liaison with the Minister of Education and Youth Culture of Jamaica and the Custos Of Trelawney whereby the pupils of the 32 Falmouth schools entered into pen-pal contact with the pupils of the 32 West Yorkshire schools who had raised the funding for the 3,200 shipped books.

The Falmouth schools were able to restock with some vital resources and over 13,000 black and white pupils from widely different cultures were enabled to bridge any gaps of cultural ignorance via their transatlantic letter communication. I had to withdraw from this project sadly two years later after I incurred two heart attacks. Meanwhile, however, it did please me to learn that the story of ‘Bucket Bill’ would become a part

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Forde
• Release date: Jun 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476005997

William Forde

William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

Book preview

‘Bucket Bill’

By

William Forde

Illustrations by Richard Gawthorpe

Copyright June 2012 by William Forde

Smashwords Edition

Revised June 2016

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Author's Foreword

Contents

Chapter 1 - ‘The Early Years’

Chapter 2 - ‘The Question and The Answer’

Chapter 3 - ‘Gilbert's Journey to Manhood’

Chapter 4 - ‘The Water Wheel of Life Turns Full Cycle’

Author's Background

Other Books by this Author

For the general audience:

Romantic Drama Strictly for Adults

Connect with William Forde

Author’s foreword

A Jamaican story from the land where the sun shines down on every man, woman and child in equal measure, a safe harbour where hope springs eternal in the hearts of all good people and where the river of respect runs deep.

This story is set in Trelawney, sometime between 1950 and 1962. I extend my appreciation to the honourable Royland Barrett, the Custos of Trelawney (Mayor), for the factual background information he provided about the history and development of Trelawney and its capital town of Falmouth. The honourable Royland Barrett acts as representative to the Governor General of Jamaica and her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.

I also extend a special 'thank you' to my dear friend, Mr Basil G. Smith, JP. Basil is a Jamaican whose love of the country and its people is matched only by his lifelong commitment to the educational progress of Trelawney children.

In mid-2000, Nelson Mandela phoned and congratulated me upon the writing of my African story, ‘The Valley of the Two Tall Oaks’ and my Indian story, ‘Indian Dreams Come True.’ Both stories were published in the book entitled, ‘Two Worlds-One Heart’. Shortly after, the broadcast of a television item on ‘News 24’ referred to Nelson Mandela’s praise of these two stories and identified me as the author of them.

During 2000, while my family and I were on vacation in Falmouth, Trelawney, Jamaica, the hotel catering manager of ‘The Trelawney Beach Hotel’, where we were staying approached me. After confirming my identity as the author whom Nelson Mandela had praised, he invited me to meet the Custos of Falmouth and some other Government representatives.

I was invited to visit the 32 schools in Falmouth, the old slave capital of Jamaica and extended my period on vacation to do so. I was then invited to write a story that could be identified by Falmouth residents as being germane to their historical background. As the vast majority of young Jamaicans sadly have one dream today: to leave Jamaica because of its poor economic prospects and to travel to the U.S.A for a better life and to earn an American dollar instead of a Jamaican dollar, I researched one area where the people of Falmouth came ahead of the people of New York.

I learned that Falmouth, Jamaica had piped water before New York, America and this historical fact was the theme around which ‘Bucket Bill’ was anchored. Because the