Casualties of war

For all his life, 88-year-old Noel Downer wanted to see the grave of his Jamaican grandfather, Private Theophilus Downer, who fought in World War I.

Albeit not in the best of health, Noel hopes he will be able to make the summer trip with his children as a New Year’s resolution for 2024.

Theophilus is believed to have been one of the Jamaican recruiters for World War I, which started in 1914, without the intention of going to war himself. He was however snatched without getting the opportunity to tell his family and eight-year-old son, Gedion Downer – Noel’s father – goodbye.

“It could have been a kidnapping [of him], but while in the war, I understand that a bomb dropped and it was not exploded, so he went to defuse the bomb and it killed him. [Jamaican] Men who returned from the war told us what happened,” Noel told The Gleaner on Tuesday during a visit to the monument erected in St Thomas in 1923 with the names of all the men killed in World War I from Jamaica.

“They [his relatives] were [traumatised by] it. The fact that, he just disappeared. He was just taken away and nothing was ever said about it. No mention from the British people as to his whereabouts. It was long after he died that we got information from men who came back from war,” he said.

Noel also told The Gleaner that he was told, through stories, that his father suffered as a result of being fatherless, especially not being able to go to school since Theophilus was taken to fight in the war.

“My father always complained that we have lost so much because his father was not there to send him to school. Consequently, we lost a lot in that sense, because my father could just barely sign his name. But, anyway, we survived all of that... and I educated my children,” Noel said.

“We got nothing, but people got land and whatever, but we got nothing,” he said.

Based on research, Goulda Downer – one of Noel’s eight children – was notified that her great-grandfather was buried at the Etaples Military Cemetary in Pas de Calais, France. He died on September 19, 1917, a year before World War I ended. He was part of the British Army, British West Indies Regiment with the service number 9904.

Promise of £20,000

Additionally, after one of Theophilus’ sisters died, his gold medal and letter from Buckingham Palace were found in her house and were sent to his address in Jamaica for the family by the British with a promise of £20,000.

Goulda said that, at this point in life, they do not wish to be given reparations, but at least be given an apology for “kidnapping” their loved one.

“I think that would be the most important thing, even if the British government doesn’t do it, the Jamaican government should. This is someone who was snatched. He did not volunteer. He was snatched and taken away,” Goulda, who at the end of this past year ended her eight-year run as the first female president of the Caribbean-American Political Action Committee, told The Gleaner.

“There is a letter that indicates that we have £20,000. We are not really interested in that ... . We’ll research it when we get there [to France] ... . I don’t think we’ve ever discussed it, but I think for the families who want it, I think it’s fine. I think compensation should not necessarily be financial, but it could be education, because education allows you to come out of poverty and gives you a broader perspective, so education through high school and college, those are the reparations I think that should come from this opportunity, because that’s something that’s lifelong, and that’s what I think should make sense,” she said.

On the other hand, the views of her father differ.

“I have gone through a lot of difficulty and some [of my relatives] are still struggling, and if I could get some money to take off the challenges that they have now, I would do that,” Noel said.

Goulda said the family trip, planned for summer to visit the grave, is one way in which the family will be able to honour Theophilus.

She said her father and grandfather, Gedion, had lost a lot economically, socially and emotionally without a father figure in their lives.

Goulda told The Gleaner that Theophilus was a Maroon with roots in Moore Town, Portland, but went to St Thomas to live.

“Records show that Colonel Downer, for example, was in charge of the Maroons and in charge of the leadership there and he was very instrumental in ensuring order and peace within the Maroons in Maroon Town, so our history is a very rich one,” she said.

In addition to not knowing his grandfather, Noel said he endured the life pain of not having a mother, as she handed him over for sole custody, care and protection to his father, and she died while giving birth to her third child.

“My father mothered me. She gave me to my father who lived in a remote area of St Thomas and she never came back to see me, so, you see, I would have lost again. I didn’t know her, but my father, he made the difference. He mothered me,” he said.

Noel said that, due to being fatherless as a result of the war, his father was uneducated but ensured that Noel went to school, especially on Fridays while other parents pulled their children from classes and had them working in the fields.

“My father caught the vision and I ran with it. Education, that was the thing... . In our district, everyone wore tear up clothes, but my father sent me to school every day and it’s still mind-boggling, because other boys didn’t go to school on a Friday if they can carry six hands of banana. On a Friday, no one went to school except me, but that changed the whole situation,” said Noel, who is the founder of a garbage collection and disposal service that he said was the first to collect waste for The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

“The Lord must have put it in, because I had no motivation to learn at school. I had not motivation, but what caused me to learn was that I didn’t like cultivation, the water, the rain and the mud,” he said.

Goulda said another reason the family has been successful over the years is due to their Christian faith and belief in the Almighty.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com