A Life that Counts

By J Lemuel Hurlston, CVO, MBE, PhD

About the book

The common theme throughout the authors' life is that of service—Public service, service on boards and commissions, charities, community and corporate organisations, and the Church. Spanning over five decades, all of the service has been within the Cayman Islands during a period of rapid development and social change.

 

I am pleased to endorse with joy and delight these memoirs reflecting on the early years growing up in Cayman, high school in Jamaica, working life in the Cayman Islands, and achieving the distinction of serving in the highest positions of Her Majesties Government. The author has "rubbed shoulders" with royalty yet never lost the ability to relate to the ordinary man on the street corner. This chronicle of "A Life that Counts" is truly a gift that the present generation will need to engage. It is so easy to forget, or even to ignore the kinds of sacrifices involved in honing such a rich and extraordinary life story as this.

 

Rt. Rev. Dr. Robert Thompson

Bishop of Kingston, Diocese of Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands

--

Reading this vital and engaging autobiography will be a constant reminder to generations to come of the thoughtfulness and determination of a generation which sought to bring the Cayman Islands into the post-modern world with integrity and honesty. As former Chief Secretary and holder of key government appointments in Cayman civil society from the 1980s to the present, Lem Hurlston's memoirs offer a unique perspective, which provides us with a glimpse of the challenges the Cayman Islands faced during those days of nation-building. His memories and keen sensibilities of diplomacy make this a most interesting read of the recent past. Of particular interest is the constant theme of service to others that runs throughout these memoirs and reminds us what the leadership qualities that are needed in public service.

The Rev. Professor Dr. Patricia G. Kirkpatrick

Chair, Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies

Faculty of Religious Studies

McGill University

• Language: English
• Publisher: CLM Publishing
• Release date: Apr 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201264208

J Lemuel Hurlston, CVO, MBE, PhD

Lemuel Hurlston retired in 1995 after 26 years of service, rising through promotions to the position of Chief Secretary and Deputy Governor, one of the highest posts in the Cayman Islands Government. He was appointed an official member of the Legislative Assembly in 1986 at the relatively young age of 35. He retired from the civil service at the age of 44. Now, twenty-one years into semi-retirement and 65 years of age, he has decided to write this autobiography. He was the Deputy Financial Secretary when Vassel Johnson, later Sir Vassel, retired in 1982 and had been one of the research analysts for the publication of The Cayman Islands Economic and Financial Review (1982), covering data for the early years of 1904-1981. Johnson was a mentor for Hurlston. Active in community service, Mr. Hurlston is a past President of the Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman, a past Chairman of the National Council of Voluntary Organizations, and President of the Justices of the Peace Association. He is also a founding member of the Civil Service Credit Union and served for several terms as its Treasurer and President. He has also served as the Cayman Islands representative for the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) and served as a Councillor for the Chamber of Commerce between 1998-2000. Since 2011, he has been appointed the Honorary Representative of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Cayman Islands, succeeding the Honourable Justice Charles Quin QC. He chaired the committee that in 2011 carried out a review of the (UK) 1999 White Paper, “Partnership for Progress and Prosperity,” and served as Vice Chairman of the committee that planned the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. In 2011, he became a director of the non-profit Bridge Foundation, providing transitional housing to Caymanians in recovery that are in need of a halfway house. He chaired the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee, appointed in 2014. He was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University College of the Cayman Islands in April 2015. Mr. Hurlston is a Trustee of Saint George’s Anglican Church. He was educated at Calabar High School, Jamaica, and Wandsworth College, London. Married to Marcia, the Hurlstons are parents to two children, John Paul and Kendra, and they have three grandchildren, Jaida, Hailee and Zoe.

Book preview

Introduction:

Historical and Social Context

The Cayman Islands have transitioned over the past fifty years from a farming, fishing, and seafaring population of fewer than ten thousand people into a modern financial and tourism destination with a standard of living and quality of life far beyond original imaginations. During this half-century, the population has increased six-fold. In the early 1940s, the wage for labour was less than 4 shillings (CI$0.40) per day. The allowance for the poor was two shillings (CI$0.20) per month. Unpaid Justices of the Peace in each district gave counselling, assisted in maintaining harmony, negotiated the settlement of minor disputes and presided over some court cases.

The miracle was explained in the book, As I See It, authored by Sir Vassel in 2001. Sir Vassel explains that the modernisation and development of the Islands were financed without any form of direct taxation. This tax-free, indirect, and more recently tax-neutral economic model attracted investors and business, which in turn fuelled growth and prosperity. Contrary to popular misconceptions, the model was never developed as a tax haven deliberately to arbitrage the tax laws of other countries. Rather, as a consequence of the American War of Independence, the British Imperial Parliament enacted the Taxation of the Colonies Act of 1778, which, in effect, promised never again to impose direct taxation in the colonies without their having direct representation in Parliament. For colonies like the Cayman Islands, which had never had direct taxation, this had the effect of creating a tax-free environment that has remained in place ever since, even though the Act was repealed in July 1973 for being obsolete. Thus, it was a promise by the Mother Parliament, extended amidst the throes of war out of fear of losing her remaining Western colonies, that engendered the modern Cayman income tax free system. And this system has, indeed, become an important aspect of the competitive financial environment that Cayman offers to legitimate investors in today’s global economy.

The Islands were never grant-aided. Expenditures were routinely balanced with revenues obtained from indirect taxation (such as customs and excise taxes, land transfer stamp duties, and other taxes). Meanwhile, funds were provided for capital development under the Colonial Development and Welfare (CD&W) scheme. These were followed by soft loans and commercial loans. Some bond financing has been offered since. The Islands joined in the formation and capitalisation of the Caribbean Development Bank and have benefited from several loans from the bank.

There is unquestionably a strong connection between the role of churches and the values of the Caymanians that led to success through pioneering in several areas, including education, community activities and social responsibility. Yet several social problems persist. Among them are mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and pockets of poverty. Since the global economic recession of 2008, there has been a noticeable level of unemployment. Immigration controls and the security of tenure for immigrants have become hot-button issues. What is more, a very prominent former politician named Annie Huldah Bodden, OBE, (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) was among those who ensured that principles of Christianity were kept in the forefront among leaders and decision makers. She served as an elected member for the district of George Town from 1962-1984. She gave the welcome speech on behalf of the government and people when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1983. Caymanians are fiercely loyal to the British Crown and have placed economic independence above any desire for political independence. This loyalty was aptly demonstrated when, during the 1982 Falkland Islands War, the Cayman Islands government and people, led by the Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Bert Watler, raised funds to assist the families in the United Kingdom who had sacrificed for this battle. As a Crown Colony, the Cayman Islands could easily sympathise with the reason and purpose for this conflict. My predecessor, Chief Secretary Dennis Foster, CVO, CBE, JP, presented the donation to the British Government. At a sum of 500,000 Pounds, it was considered a huge per capita amount and was graciously received.

The residents have in the past shown commendable resilience and self-reliance in managing recovery, from disasters to providing essential infrastructure to enhancing the quality of life in general. In 2014, the Islands marked the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, the cause of much devastation from which a full physical recovery appears to have been made.

The early maritime heritage of the seamen afforded a large number of men to earn a living whilst developing many successful careers and achieving deserving promotions to the highest ranks in this global industry. The Caymanian seamen built an international reputation in the 1950s-1980s for being quick learners, eagerly assuming responsibilities and discharging them well. By virtue of this reputation, they were highly sought after by shipping companies. Many in the lower ranks would later be replaced by cheaper labour available from the Philippines, India, and elsewhere.

Mr. Albert Panton and his son Colin were the owners of Pan Carib Agencies, which served as the recruiting agent for the shipping lines. The renowned Gwendolyn Lily Bush¹ headed this agency. Gwen was the nerve centre and focal point of the business. She made the business successful by her personal style and commitment to getting the job done on time. With over 1,000 seamen deployed at any time, this task was major and critical. Gwen would complete every aspect of the process from booking flights, arranging medical examinations, assisting with passports and visas, briefing the seamen on the journeys, saying farewell to them personally at the airport, maintaining communication with the family while the seamen were abroad, and greeting them personally on their return. This was no small accomplishment without a telephone or the Internet. Even more remarkable was that Gwen herself never owned a passport and never travelled outside of the Cayman Islands.

Mrs. Maude Seymour, mother of Lucille Seymour (British Empire Medal-BEM) and former senior civil servant and member of the Legislative Assembly, would rush the seamen through the medical exams at the Hospital, while Beverly Panton-Henning (BEM) would speedily issue the passports and visa waivers for travel, sometimes with as little as six hours’ notice. No wonder then that over four hundred seamen walked behind Miss Gwen’s casket from the Church to the cemetery in South Sound when she died in 1999.

The census of 1960 showed a total population of 8,803 persons with a note that 1,187, mostly seamen, were absent. My father, himself a renowned seafarer who rose to the rank of Captain, had made it clearly known to Miss Gwen that I was not to be allowed to embark on a career at sea. The temptation was nonetheless strong at times. The earnings saved by the seamen built homes for their families and would later offer employment to those experienced in the emerging construction trades during the first economic boom of the 1970s. Caymanians demonstrated pride in home ownership. The methods employed may have taken some time to accomplish, but stage constructions were common with the seamen’s earnings being the main source of financing. This traditional method of financing changed drastically in 1968 with the arrival of InterBank.²

The tourism industry began in the 1950s with a few guesthouses offering basic accommodations and a small number of fishermen providing trips on chartered excursions, which included the consumption of a portion of the catch. Some of these locations, such as Rum Point, the Sand Bar, and Stingray City in the North Sound, would later become popular tourist attractions. The building of the first hotel on the now famous Seven-Mile Beach was an investment by an Englishman who secured a tract of Crown land on a long lease. Benson Greenall successfully secured a lease from the Government for 99 years for about 100 pounds annually; the size of the land was around 600 acres. The Ritz-Carlton and Westin Hotels and Safe Haven developments all sit today on some of this large tract of land, though some of the terms of the lease have been renegotiated in recent years.

In the early days, a few wealthy visitors also built homes and hired staff to care for them. Multi-million dollar condos and homes are common today, as are property disputes among landowners. The Cadastral Survey, funded by the British Government and carried out between 1970 -1975, established provisional or absolute titles of every parcel of land, facilitating a modest boom in real estate. One of the largest public demonstrations of this era took place in the late 1970s as builders objected to plans to allow for the importation of prefabricated structures. This was seen as a loss of employment opportunities in the construction field. The plans were withdrawn.

Aligned with the hotel was the equally important need for an airport. Following a visit by Governor Hugh Foot and Jamaican Chief Minister Alexander Bustamante, the Assembly voted to borrow $111,000 at 5% interest from the Colonial Development Corporation. They received $50,000 from a CD&W grant and $29,000 in local financing to cover the balance. Having secured these funds, the Public Works Department (PWD) team from Jamaica arrived with heavy equipment to develop the airport, which was completed in 1952.

With considerable public spending on mosquito research and control, investors were drawn to the Islands by the stability of the constitutional attachment to the British Crown, the ease of doing business, the safety and security of the Islands, and the warmth and genuine friendliness of the Caymanians. Cayman’s ability to absorb visitors, foreign investors and new residents has been remarkable. The cosmopolitan mixture of the present population of more than 100 different nationalities is proof of this integration story. Charitable and service groups are always a popular starting point for this integration because they afford the opportunities to combine addressing community needs with matching skills and resources.

The financial industry emerged by choice in the mid-1960s and the obvious developments that followed are visible today. The Banks and Trust Companies Law, together with the Confidential Relationships Preservation Law and the Companies Law, formed the enabling legislative framework for this new industry to thrive. And thrive it certainly did. In the early 1970s the Government of the Bahamas, having gained independence in 1973, issued some unwelcoming political statements that were intended to be taken as pro-Bahamian, but which were taken as anti-expatriate. The result was that several large multi-national corporations immediately decided to relocate to a friendlier jurisdiction, and the Cayman Islands happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Also in the 1970s, Captain VanDerLinde formed a company named Cayman Energy Limited, and a ship-to-ship oil transfer operation was launched off the shores of Cayman Brac. Some of the world’s largest super tankers brought millions of barrels of oil from the Middle East and transferred this cargo to smaller tankers of between 10,000 and 90,000 tons that shuttled the crude oil to ports in the USA. These ports could not handle the larger ships. This business generated good paying jobs for qualified Caymanians and a substantial boost to the local economy, including royalties to government. It lasted for almost ten years; after that, the operational costs became prohibitive and others provided the service in the Gulf. The revenues from this single source in 1978 were estimated at CI$500,000.

In the most recent decade, several modernisation initiatives have been undertaken, including the new 2009 Constitution, the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility (FFR), and a public sector rationalisation exercise called Project Future. Human rights, standards in public life, and managing the growth and accountability of statutory boards, corporations and public companies are all being addressed. Modern developments have included Camana Bay, Cayman Enterprise City and Health City. Since Hurricane Ivan, wild chickens have proliferated while green iguanas and lionfish have replaced mosquitos as threats. The rest, as they say, is history!

Family Tree of the late

John Lemuel Hurlston

24 January 1876 to 11 October 1935

_________________

¹ Born 5 February 1920 and died 28 November 1999

² http://www.compasscayman.com/cfr/story.aspx?id=1360

Chapter 1

Family History

Little is recorded or known about the family name HURLSTON except that it originated in England. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon first name Hurel, and then signified an enclosure or farm-village. Thus the name denotes simply, man from Hurel’s enclosure. It first appeared in written documents in the year 1474 when a Henry Hurleston is listed in the Edward IV Rolls as a resident of Chester, England. I was given the same name as my grandfather, John Lemuel Hurlston. He was born on 24 January 1876 and died at age 59 on 11 October 1935. He is buried in the community cemetery at South Sound. Coincidentally, I was born on the same date in 1951, seventy-five years after his birth. I am a seventh-generation Caymanian. Grandfather John was a general store manager and worked for a German businessman named Paul Kelten in Nicaragua for over twenty years (about 1915-1935), travelling between Nicaragua and Grand Cayman occasionally. Most of his ten children, including my father, were born in Nicaragua. Following his return to Grand Cayman, my grandfather became the business representative and manager of a general store owned by the Webster family. The store was located behind a building in George Town called the Viking Gallery. He was, by all accounts, trustworthy and reliable. He was also sickly and died before reaching his 60th year. My father was five years old when the family returned to Grand Cayman permanently in 1922. He attended an all-age school in George Town and left school in the sixth grade. At age fifteen, he began a career in 1933 as a sailor on a vessel named the Gold Medal, owned by Conwell Watler of East End. The crew included Captain Malcom Carl Bush, my father’s uncle, a mate, a cook, and two sailors. By the commencement of World War II in 1939, my father had become captain of the turtle schooners without a formal qualification or license. One such schooner was the Jemson. My grandmother was a Bush, and her parents, Charles Christopher and Annie Bush, were ship owners.

Annie’s parents came originally from Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica. Charles, whose grandparents came from England in 1750 and had deserted from one of HM ships, was uneducated but gifted with the ability to survive and quickly learned from others. He admitted learning much about shipping and seamanship from a retired Royal Navy captain named Billy Parsons. The Diamond was Charles’ turtling vessel. Sadly, she was destroyed during the 1932 hurricane.

Spouse of Charles Christopher Bush (1864-1942):

Anne Elizabeth Raydon Bush (1868 -1944)

Children:

Kathleen (Katie) Adela Bush Hurlston (1889 -1961)

Charles Christopher Bush Jr. (1890-1932)

Lymon Alexander Bush (1892-1927)

Ella O’Neil Bush-Lopez (1894-1954)

James Garvin Bush (1897-1924)

Claries Aretta Bush Wilson (1899 -1988)

Annie Elizabeth Bush (1901-1994)

Malcolm Carl Bush (1903-2004)

Ione Rothe Bush (1905-1908)

Robertha Lee Bush (1907-1994)

Turtle fishing boats went out to the banks off the coast of Nicaragua where they fished with licenses and paid customs charges on their cargoes before returning home to sell the meat and its by-products. This arrangement was agreed upon between the British Government and the Government of Nicaragua. The boat owners would generally keep one half of the earnings of the six to eight-week voyage while the other half was shared with the crew. Families of turtle fishermen were allowed to charge food and other items to an account at the store, if there was one, of the boat owners. These accounts were settled once the voyages ended and the earnings distributed. The Caymanian turtle fishermen knew how to make and set nets to catch the turtles, while the Nicaraguans generally used harpoons to strike the turtles. Much of the catch that was surplus to the Islanders’ needs was sold and shipped to Key West, Florida and Jamaica.

A Captain Thomas Dias of George Town taught my father navigation. By age 21, my father was reportedly very capable of navigating. Following the start of World War II, he went to Jamaica and managed to secure a job as a sailor on one of the steamships of the Jamaica Fruit and Shipping Co. Many other Caymanians did the same. These ships would normally sail up the coast to Halifax and join a large convoy of over forty ships to make the Atlantic crossing to London. After several of these voyages, he sailed on a ship called the Gemstone from London to Australia to load cargoes of grain. On one of the return journeys, the Gemstone was part of the convoy assembled in Cape Town, South Africa. It was heading to London when the news came that the German battleship Bismarck was on patrol and heading south towards the African coast, so all ships were forced to turn around and move as fast as possible to the south until further news came that the Bismarck had been sunk.

Wishing to return to Jamaica, he next signed on to a ship called the Culebra, a Royal Mail ship³ that took cargo to London from Jamaica and Cuba. On this stop in Santiago de Cuba, he and a Caymanian seaman who had been drinking heavily engaged in a fight. For unknown reasons, the man stabbed my father several times with a knife in the chest and arm. He was immediately arrested to face conviction and imprisonment in Cuba before being sent back to Jamaica. While my father was admitted to the local hospital, the ship had to sail without these two crewmembers. The ship and all its crew, a total of forty-five, were lost on that voyage.

With several brief jobs in Panama and a few more trips to Cuba, my father began studying for his mate’s license, which he was proud to acquire in 1944 from the British Marine Board in Jamaica. He spoke fluent Spanish, which would later become useful. My mother, a Caymanian studying music in Jamaica, and my father were married in Kingston in 1944. That same year, he gained his Master Mariner’s license. He was then twenty-eight years old.

Hurlston, Vera I.

b. Mar. 24, 1919 d. Apr. 23, 1951

Their courtship in Cayman had been challenging, as the distance between South Sound where my father lived and the North Side where my mother lived had to be navigated by bicycle. The dirt roads and tracks were so bad that the bicycle had to be carried on the shoulders part of the journey. But love conquers all!

My mother returned to Grand Cayman, as she was expecting their first child in 1945. In the interim, my father sailed cargo ships carrying bananas and coconuts between Tampa and Honduras. On one trip, he took my mother and sister Del with him.

There is a connection between the Cayman Islands and the Bay Islands of Honduras. The Bay Islanders were predominantly black slaves from the Cayman Islands who were freed in 1834. As their former British slave owners fled Cayman to the Northern Coast of Honduras and British Honduras, these brave people navigated from Cayman to Honduras to start a new life. Caymanians migrated to several places in search of a livelihood including the USA, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and others.

Of significance was the vessel Insco Trader,⁴ owned in Tampa, which usually carried general cargo and bananas. On one particular voyage, on 29 December 1954, the cargo was dynamite and the destination was Barranquilla, Colombia. Trouble struck early one morning about fifty miles from the destination. As captain, with a crew of about fourteen, my father gave the order to launch the lifeboats when it was discovered that the ship was sinking fast. In less than twenty minutes, the ship had sunk completely. Everyone was rescued the next day by a Norwegian freighter. As captain he had some latitude to sail close to shore when passing his Island home of Grand Cayman and when convenient he did. He would blow the ship’s horn while standing on the bridge of the ship. From there he waved a handkerchief to family and friends gathered on the seashore, property owned by his father near Smith’s Barcadere. These were very emotional moments. The ship had a schedule and total compliance with the owner’s orders and expectations had to be observed. For about four years after working on the Insco ships, my father worked for National Bulk Carriers, much of this time on the same ship named the Ore Prince⁵ where he served as first mate.

S.S. Ore Prince, leader in a series of ore ships, built by National Bulk Carriers, Kure, Japan Shipbuilding Division.

Steady and final employment came from the West India Shipping Company of West Palm Beach, Florida. Several trips were made to Europe and Japan, but most remaining trips would be around the Caribbean and Central and South America from Florida and Houston. The Inagua Bay and the newest ship in the fleet, the Inagua Pilot, were his favourites.

I have chosen to