2nd July 2015
Celebrating Waterloo in the Caribbean
While the ceremonies to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo took place in Europe, tucked away in a corner of the Caribbean a more modest event with some 100 participants, including the Premier of TCI and former Chief Ministers, was held to mark another “Waterloo”. In 1815 a wealthy Bermudan salt merchant, presumably to show off his pride in the victory, named his new home on the island of Grand Turk after the battle.
Grand Turk, a former important salt producing island in the Turks and Caicos Islands, had been established as a British colony in the 1700s. The islands were loosely linked to the Bahamas, and the UK was represented by a King’s Agent and subsequently a President. After an attack on one of the King’s Agents over an immigration issue in the 1850s, the British Government decided to find a permanent home for their representative and managed to secure Waterloo.
In what must be one of the best bargains for the Government the home was sold by the owner, James Misick, for the princely sum of £1046, including some thirty acres of scrubland and access to a fine beach. Ever since the 1850s the home has been the official residence of Britain’s Representative to Turks and Caicos.
Waterloo’s history is many ways a reflection of TCI’s own sometimes turbulent past. Since its foundation as the home of a salt producer – an industry which died in TCI in the 1960s – it has been buffeted by some strong hurricanes. On one occasion, the occupant of 1866 wrote “the coach house was lifted off its foundations and blown clean over the ruins of the office, and the stone stables and wooden pens were demolished, killing a cow”. The home also withstood, just, a fire which destroyed its kitchen, and it is still attacked today by the prevalent Caribbean pest, termites.
In the 1970s it was the scene of disputes with the leader of a political movement demanding more political autonomy, who staged a peaceful “sleep out” on the lawns of the home until agreement was reached for a new Constitution, resulting in the first Ministerial Government under TCI’s national hero JAGS McCartney.
Today, after various renovations and improvements, Waterloo still remains a fine house, full of history, but also one used regularly for meetings with government, opposition, church leaders, community groups and school children. As local historian Dr Carlton Mills noted to mark its 200th Anniversary, “ Waterloo is an important part of the Turks and Caicos Islands’, and the Caribbean’s, heritage and legacy, with history, charm, and character”.
As the Premier, Dr Rufus Ewing, noted at the only Caribbean version of events to mark Waterloo, who knows perhaps one day a further step will be marked in the home’s history, and the country’s first Governor-General or Prime Minister will take up residence. They would be fortunate to inherit a wonderful piece of TCI’s culture.
Peter Beckingham, Governor Turks and Caicos Islands.
