Cann and Morrell would be worthy National Heroes

We need a hero – and the editor of a 400-strong list of Bermuda’s most prominent figures has come up with a few.

Meredith Ebbin, a former Deputy Editor of the the Bermuda Sun and editor of the book Bermuda 1609-2009: 400 Years, 400 Portraits, nominated a handful of heroes after Government said no new names would be added to the national heroes list this year.

Ms Ebbin said: “A national hero is someone who makes a major contribution — someone like Mandela, who is a major figure and often has lost something in the process, or someone who leaves a significant legacy.

“If I had to pick somebody for this year, it would be Dr Eustace Cann and Gladys Misick Morrell.

Ms Ebbin said Dr Cann, who fought to get rid of the property qualification for the vote in the Upper House and backed extending the vote to women, which finally happened in 1944.

She added: “He was somebody who could just have practiced medicine and been very comfortable, but he got into the fray.”

Ms Ebbin said: “His vote was very important when it came to women and the vote, because black MPs were opposed to women getting the vote because of the property vote, which would have meant wealthy women. 

“He broke ranks and that’s a sign of courage.”

Ms Ebbin added that Ms Morrell was probably “the only one from the existing group that’s missing.”

She said: “She was a suffragette and that was very unpopular at the time – she suffered for that and she made a difference.”

Ms Ebbin was speaking after Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Wayne Scott said that no new heroes would be added to the existing roster of five.

These are former PLP leader Dame Lois Browne Evans, Pauulu Kamarakafego, former UBP Premier Sir Henry Tucker, pioneering trades unionist and civil rights campaigner Dr EF Gordon and former slave Mary Prince, whose book about the horrors of slavery is still read today.

Mr Scott said: “It was never intended that national heroes be selected every year. For this year, it was determined that we should focus on the ‘Proud to be Bermudian’ theme, whilst also acknowledging past national heroes, as we push on with our social recovery.

Reflect

“Thus there will not be a new national hero for 2013. We will take this year to reflect on on the five national heroes thus far and newspaper notices acknowledging our national heroes are already on display.”

Banners celebrating the five national heroes already named have been placed in appropriate spots around the city.

Ms Ebbin said that other significant contributors to Bermuda society who deserved recognition included pioneering civil rights activist and trades unionist Dr Barbara Ball, 19th century Governor John Lefroy, who fought for educational rights for black children and poor white people and also saved for posterity many of Bermuda’s historical records.

Others she suggested as candidates were Bishop Aubrey Spencer, who founded schools to educate black children and poor white children, MP Dr John Stubbs, who backed civil rights in the 1960s and gay rights in the 1890s and whose bill finally legalised gay sex between consenting adults in 1994.