History of the Grenada Benevolent Society UK
By its Founder Christopher Quashie

It was a cold Sunday afternoon in February 1966 when I left my rented room at 33 Holbeach Road to go for a haircut by my brother Elon. As I started to walk to the bus stop, the snow started to fall so heavily I could hardly see where I was going, and so decided to turn back to Holbeach Road. I sat in my room remembering our happy childhood days and the togetherness we shared as youngsters on our beautiful island, only to come into this cold climate for purely economic reasons. It was whilst I was sitting there waiting to go back to work on Monday morning that the thought suddenly came to me - why not form a club where all our friends and families from back home could meet and socialise, and at the same time raise funds to help the people of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Well, with that brainwave I could not sleep that night and the next day after work the first person I called to relate my idea was the late David Phillip. He said "Chris, I think that is a splendid idea - let's go for it!" From that encouragement I called Willie Simon, Bertie Alexander, Elon Boatswain, Uthan Henry and those of us who were not on the telephone I visited personally to seek their support.

Our first meeting took place at 33 Holbeach Road in my room. One month later we held our first official meeting and the Grenada Benevolent Society was born. I was elected and served as Secretary for 33 years before my retirement in 1999. I was Secretary for so long not because I was that good, but because no-one else wanted the job!

Today, after 40 years, I think we have done very well to still be in existence. Some of our critics did not give us 6 months to stay afloat because as far as they were concerned, we were a bunch of little boys with no experience or management skills.

However what we did possess was a lot of respect for each other and that is why we are still here today. No matter how strongly we felt as individuals about a matter, and I quote from Bill Clinton's autobiography: "we never allow our ego to stand in the way of good decision-making", so this was another plus in our favour.

My dear friends, over the years we made many contributions to Carriacou and petite Martinique and one of our outstanding achievements was the donation of an x-ray machine to Carriacou, but our first real contribution was the monetary donation towards the building of Bishops College, tools to the Junior Sec in Hillsborough and countless more contributions too numerous to mention at this time. In spite of our many good works, both here and abroad, public records and recognition of our Society has been limited, but we have never let that dissuade us. The Society did not exist to promote the work of any one individual but the united works of the Society Members as a whole.

I would like to take this time to congratulate the Executive Committee for the good work they are doing as I know from experience that it is hard work. One thing that has changed to alleviate and speed up administration is the use of modern technology: e-mail, fax, word-processing etc - in my days it was all handwritten!!

This notable anniversary could not be celebrated without special mention to the late David Phillip who served as President of the Society for a wonderful 31 years. Under his leadership the Society went from strength to strength. Mr Phillip always promoted tolerance of the views of others and ensured that all opinions were taken into account. A good listener, fond of spirited debate and a man of principle, Mr Phillip always professed that our gatherings were a meeting of many minds. He was a good, fair and popular leader as well as a good friend to all; may God rest his soul.

Today, I can safely say that the Grenada Benevolent Society UK remains committed to its cause and I sincerely hope that within the next 40 years we can set up a lasting landmark of the GBS, something that can be seen and recognised as ours and judging by the mood of the current Members, I know this is achievable.

Past & Present Members Dinner & Dance