Harry Ryecroft was born in Lancanshire, in the north of England in the 19th century of working class parents. He was my wife’s great grandfather on her mother’s side. Vivienne’s mother was English, and her father was originally from Barbados. Harry Ryecroft came to my attention through a number of war medals that Vivienne brought out annually on Remembrance Day. Vivienne’s mother had passed on these medals to her before she passed away.
Harry, as a young man, joined the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was sent to South Africa as a gunner in the British Army with the rank of private. He saw action in the Second Boer War 1900-1902. His first medal was the Queen’s South Africa Medal awarded to all British Forces who served in South Africa from 1899 – 1902 (Wikipedia). It was a savage war where soldiers often went without food and water. The disorder of enteri-a gastro-intestinal disease, killed thousands. The British although they had the superior forces adopted a scorch earth policy when it was clear that the Boers (Dutch farmers) could not be defeated by conventional means.

Harry was in the thick of action through a number of battles and campaigns. He received military clasps for action in Orange Free State (1900), Johannesburg (1900), Diamond Hill (1900), Belfast (1900), South Africa (1901), Cape Colony (1902). The reading of these campaigns and battles make stories in themselves. Although the Queen’s South Africa Medal is made of silver, the medal awarded to some Indian troops and non-enlisted men was made of bronze instead of silver (Wikipedia).
The war dragged on for years and the Boers suffered many military and civilian casualties. Among the British and Allied Forces, there were 22,000 dead and 75,000 returning home sick or wounded. The war had complex origins but the most obvious was to control the lucrative gold and diamond mines in South Africa.
A number of well known personages were involved in the war, including John McCrae, the Canadian poet who wrote the World War 1 poem “In Flanders Fields”; a young Winston Churchill worked as a war correspondent and was captured, escaped, and rejoined the British forces; Mahatma Gandhi who lived in South Africa, volunteered in 1900 to help the British by forming teams of ambulance drivers; and the author Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote Sherlock Holmes. Amazingly Harry Ryecroft survived this war and lived to fight another day. He must have carried a lucky seed from Guyana in his pocket.
The First World War broke out in 1914 and Harry, a career soldier, was soon in action again. This war was billed as the Great War for Civilization. Promoted to Corporal in the Royal Field Artillery, he received The Great War for Civilization Medal 1914-1919. He was mentioned in dispatches for gallant and meritorious action. He also received the British World War 1 Victory Medal 1914, made of bronze with a V marked on its face. He received the British War Medal 1914-1918 made of silver.
In 1914 at Christmas, Harry and the soldiers received a brass box called the Princess Mary Christmas gift box distributed to members of the armed forces in World War 1. It was named after 17-year old Princess Mary, daughter of King George V. It was typically filled with an ounce of tobacco, a packet of cigarettes, a cigarette lighter, a Christmas card and a photograph of Princess Mary. Some boxes contained sweets, chocolates, and lemon drops. Officers’ boxes were made of silver. (See box and medals in picture.)
Harry married Hannah Sagar and they had no children. He survived the Great War and was well known and loved by Vivienne’s mum and her sisters. Vivienne’s mum’s husband had died in the First World War but that is another story. After the war, Harry bought a nice car in which he took Vivienne’s mum and sisters for long and memorable drives when they were children.
Unfortunately, within four years of the end of the war, Harry developed cancer of the tongue. He had several operations which removed pieces of his tongue. In 1922, Vivienne’s mum who was nine years old, was called with her sisters to his bedroom as he lay dying. They were not allowed to enter as it was thought that cancer was contagious. He died that same night. Soon after they returned to bed and they could hear a great clattering and crashing of cups, saucers, plates, pots and pans being broken and thrown into the garbage. The household felt that they could all develop cancer if they used cutlery and dishes which Harry had used! I am glad that belief does not still exist today.
Harry was a brave, generous and kindly man. His time with family was all too short. He died in his 40’s, loyal to king and country. Cecil Rhodes, the British statesman, mining magnate, and politician in Southern Africa who exploited Africa, reportedly said, “Remember that you are Englishmen, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.” Tell that to all the wounded and those who lost their lives as cannon fodder in wars, including Vivienne’s grandfather who died in World War 1. I’ll be talking to you if the creeks don’t rise and the sun still shines.
(References – Wikipedia; Vivienne Heydorn family tree.)

By Romeo Kaseram

Cyril Everard Palmer was born on October 15, 1930, in Kendal in the parish of Hanover, Jamaica, to father Cyril, a subsistence farmer, and mother Vida. Later, as a writer, Palmer would recall this early pastoral life, which according to Encyclopedia.com, was one where “he rode donkeys, helped with farm chores like milking the cows, and played and fished in the coastal area’s rivers and streams”. Following his early education, Palmer attended Mico Training College in the early 1950s – it was here where he published his first short story, which appeared in the school’s magazine. Following his teacher’s diploma, acquired in 1955, Palmer returned to teach at the Kendal High School. He later worked for The Sunday Gleaner as its crime reporter, before leaving for Canada, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1973 from Lakehead University.
Writing in Arts Profile in 1974, George Stanton tells us the young Palmer was inspired to become a writer after reading a Western novel in 1952. This is obliquely confirmed in Encyclopedia.com, which notes Palmer was an avid reader and a fan of Western novels. Quoting from Something About the Author, Encyclopedia.com also notes another reason why Palmer may have been driven to put pen to paper, he revealing to the publication: “I believe one of the reasons I was pointed in the direction of writing lies is the fact that when I was young, I was too shy to speak and even when I spoke, I did it poorly.”
Notable for his commitment and output, while on his crime beat for The Sunday Gleaner, at the same time Palmer was also writing fiction for the daily paper. This was acknowledged by Glenda Anderson, who writing in The Sunday Gleaner in 2003, confirms Palmer’s foray into the world of short story writing for children started during his crime reporting days – that while covering assignments, he was also submitting fiction to the daily newspaper. Palmer’s first story that appeared in The Gleaner was ‘Broken Vessel’, which was followed by ‘Spanish Treasure’, and others. Speaking to Anderson in 2003, Palmer noted in his early career he preferred to write adult stories; however, Jamaica’s Ministry of Education had approached him to produce a series about Jamaican life “in which the children could see themselves”. It was several years before the Ministry published this work.
After emigrating to Canada, and after his university degree, Palmer settled down to teach in its public school system. However, he never left the rusticity of his birthplace behind, and continued to write books for young readers set in rural Jamaica. Quoted in Encyclopedia.com, Palmer told Something About the Author: “This is the period of my life which has meant the most to me… the period which is most vivid, the phase that I remember most clearly, the part I like to borrow from to create my stories.”
According to Cherrell Shelley Robinson, writing in Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, most of Palmer’s books, while set in rural Jamaica, capture the rhythm of Jamaican speech while vividly depicting the vivacity of rustic living. Robinson adds: “Simple plots, with the right dash of humour and suspense to engage young readers, accurately depict the vicissitudes of village life as experienced by such unforgettable characters as the flamboyant Big Doc Bitteroot, the orphaned Beppo Tate, and the worldly wise Roy Penner. Although Palmer’s themes are universal in their focus on the lust for power, the search for love and acceptance, the importance of self-reliance, and community solidarity, the social context of the stories remains distinctly Caribbean.”
Also noting that Palmer’s source material was derived from his rustic roots in Jamaica, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature notes how his stories are inspired by memories of a childhood in this setting, while exhibiting “humor, strong characterisation, and vibrant dialogue”. Oxford adds: “It was only after independence in the 1960s that children's literature other than folk tales began to emerge in the Caribbean, and Palmer’s earliest contributions were The Cloud with the Silver Lining (1966), Big Doc Bitteroot (1968), The Sun Salutes You (1970), and, A Cow Called Boy (1972). He incorporates traditional character types in his texts; in The Wooing of Beppo Tate (1972), which depicts a typical post-emancipation rural settlement, his major protagonist, Teppy, the affable trickster, shows the influence of oral and traditional folk tale: like Anancy, Teppy is a survivor and a human parasite.”
According to Robinson, Palmer’s most serious and best work is My Father Sun-Sun Johnson (1974), which was also adapted as a film under the same title in 1975. Robinson notes the strength in this text “lies mainly in its sensitive exploration of the psyche of an adolescent boy struggling to accept his parents’ divorce”. Also noted is Palmer being “at his best when recalling boyhood experiences” so it was no surprise that the books that are set in Canada, as A Dog Called Houdini (1978) and Houdini, Come Home (1981) “lack much of the vitality and skill of some of his earlier works”, with the other “areas of weakness in his writings” being a tendency towards “melodramatic endings and the occasional appearance of young protagonists who speak beyond their years”.
Palmer wrote over 15 books for young readers, among these: The Broken Vessel (1960), Cloud With A Silver Lining (1966), The Sun Salutes You (1970), The Hummingbird People (1971), Baba and Mr Big (1972), The Wooing of Beppo Tate (1972), and, Beppo Tate and Roy Penner: The Runaway Marriage Brokers: Two Stories (1980). His last book, A Time To Say Goodbye, was published in 2006. He won numerous awards and recognition during his career, among these being the Certificate of Merit by the Jamaican Reading Association for contribution to Jamaican Children Literature; the Silver Musgrave Medal for Literature from the Institute of Jamaica, which he received in 1977; and in 1999, he was honoured at a ceremony in Hanover, where a message from the Canadian High Commissioner John Robinson was read by Councillor at the Canadian High Commission Robert Richard, which described the author as “the master of the rural Caribbean tale for any readership, adult or juvenile”. Palmer died in Mississauga on June 16, 2013.

Sources for this exploration: The Sunday Gleaner; Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English; the National Library of Jamaica; the Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature; and Encyclopedia.com.

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