Most Blessèd, Most Glorious, Thy Great Name We Praise: Warriors For Life
A History of Freeport High, Freeport Anglican High, Discovery Primary and Bishop Michael Eldon schools at 50.
This article was originally published as a part of the school’s golden anniversary in 2015.
Grand Bahama — the then-colony’s second-most populated island — was little more than a pine forest until the signing of Hawksbill Creek Agreement in 1955. Guided by Wallace Groves’ Grand Bahama Port Authority (G.B.P.A.), Freeport rapidly attracted investments and expatriate workers who brought with them, their families, including school-aged children. Consequently, a handful of schools were founded in the city during this period, including Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic School, which opened in August of 1960, and the Freeport School, which oral historians remember, opened on Settler’s Way to meet the needs of Marine Construction’s employees.
Founded by the Grand Bahama Port Authority, Freeport High School (F.H.S.) began classes on Monday, September 3, 1965 at East Sunrise Highway. Led by Mr. Maurice Lord, the former headmaster of the Freeport School — an all-age school also administered by the G.B.P.A. — Freeport High’s faculty comprised of three additional former Freeport School staffers, and seven new teachers. Boasting ninety-one students distributed through four grade levels — which included forms nine through twelve — Freeport High’s physical plant consisted of nine classrooms and an administration block, which housed the headmaster’s office, the general office, and the staff-room.
A close relationship still existed with Freeport School, which served as a feeder school and after being taken over by the Methodist Church in 1965, would be known as St. Paul’s Methodist College. The cooperation of the two schools allowed Freeport High’s science students to use the science laboratories of St. Paul’s Methodist. However, little could be done to avoid the burdensome unavailability of public transportation, which forced them to travel three miles between the two schools via taxi daily.
In 1966, Freeport High graduated its first class of six students: one Bahamian, Charlene Albury-Thompson and five ex-pats, Duane J. Dushane, Alan Farrar, Robert Gaffin, Gladstone Gregg and Robert Seffer. The same year, three additional blocks were added to the campus, comprising much-needed science laboratories, and art, music, and geography rooms. The same year, Mr. Lord returned to England, and Mr. Hugh Davies was appointed as principal.
In 1968, the area in the centre of the school was roofed over to provide a covered area for assemblies; and in 1970, the final two blocks of the existing building were added. The additions provided classrooms for business studies, home economics, and technical drawing, as well as changing facilities and showers for physical education. Although this was the end of major construction, improvements continued to be made — landscaping was carried out, and the entire campus grounds were fenced in.
The fledgling school’s liberal culture reflected the 1960s and 1970s — the first decades of its operation. Smoking breaks for both teachers and students were commonplace during the late sixties and early seventies, with more than a handful of students venturing to “The Hill” with regularity. Male students were clad in “groovy” blue jeans and white shirts and female students showed off their “foxy” legs in blue very mini skirts with white shirts — and virtually all black students wore an afro at one time or another. Regularly seen dotting the city’s streets on their way to purchase quick meals at the Pancake House and Beefy-King restaurants, students of these decades also fondly remember its gymnasts Desirèe Shepherd ’78 and Tracey Jagr ’78; star-studded talented shows, featuring the likes of singers Crystal Cumberbatch ’78 and the late Johnny Kemp ’76 — who later became an international recording artist — as well as dancers “Mr. Kung Fu” David Bowen ’77, Portia Garvey Colebrooke ’75 and Sanford Williams ’76.
Future pilot Eddie Thomas, the school’s first black Bahamian student, graduated in 1970, signaling the beginning of dramatic change among the makeup of the student population from the children of white expats to those of locals — followed by an eventual change among the faculty as well. The previous year, Sir Lynden O. Pindling, then-Premier of The Bahamas, made a speech during an inspection tour at the official opening of the Bahamas Oil Refinery Company that led to the mass exodus of white expats to the United States, the Caymans, Canada and England. Delivered in masterful style and oratory splendor, Pindling’s “Bend or Break” speech lambasted racism in the development of Freeport and discrimination in its operations: “Freeport is a well-planned city — so well planned in fact that it appears that it was intended to plan the Bahamian right out of it…In this city where, regrettably almost anything goes, where, promisingly, some economic opportunities have come to Bahamians, Bahamians are nevertheless, still the victims of an unbending social order which, if it now refuses to bend, must now be broken.”
In 1975, the school was taken over by the Nassau-based Anglican Central Education Authority (A.C.E.A.). Father William Marshall Bishop who had been for many years headmaster at St. John’s College, Nassau, was appointed principal of the later-renamed Freeport Anglican High School (F.A.H.S.). He held the post for three years, before retiring in 1978 and was succeeded by Mrs. Anita Osman who held the post until 1986. Subsequently, Mr. Ernest Rocheford, a Barbadian and former principal of the Saint Marten Academy served as principal from January 1987 to June 1989. Two major additions during their headships were the swimming pool in 1981, and the school’s auditorium in 1991. While few may remember it now, students of these eras participated in many fundraising activities to see them brought to fruition. A central figure in these efforts was the audacious Mr. Terry Thomas, the school’s beloved geography teacher, whose Tuck Shop operation generated the first $75,000 raised towards the construction of the auditorium.
Meanwhile, Lady Henrietta St. George established Discovery Primary School with just twelve students and three teachers in a cottage at the bottom of her Freeport home in January 1988. In September 1991, the doors of Discovery’s new facilities were opened adjacent to Freeport Anglican High with 110 students and ten teachers. Operated by Lady Henrietta until June 1993, she gave Discovery as a gift to the Anglican Diocese, and it became the primary department for Freeport Anglican High School.
As successor to Mr. Rocheford, the now-Venerable Harry Bain served as principal of Freeport Anglican High from September 1989 through September 1998, which included responsibility for the oversight of Discovery Primary. It was during the 1995–1996 academic year that the school’s Steel Pan Band was founded by music teacher Mr. Jackson Demeritte. Its founding was a highlight of this period in the school’s history. Although largely self-taught on the pans, Mr. Demeritte guided the band to local acclaim by virtue of performances for school functions, which were followed by those for the wider public across the island.
Also during the 1990s, Freeport Anglican High enjoyed unprecedented triumphs in all fields of play. The brothers B’jorn Munroe ’97 and the late LaVaughn Munroe seized multiple tennis championships. The sister-duo, Shanti Malcolm Knowles ’99 and Taneca Malcolm Ward ’00, along with Andrew Bell ’01, and young Dillets, dominated swim competitions. Most prominently, the Warriors claimed the Bahamas National Track and Field Championships in 1997, 1998 and 1999. The historic three-peat was triumphantly delivered by an assemblage of outstanding student-athletes led by Nadinique Russell Guillory ’98 Shakeitha Henfield ’00, Cherishe Hollingsworth ’99, Nakoya Knowles ’99, the late Jodi Martin ’98, Evita Morrison ’98, Richard Petty ’99, Napoleon Rolle, 99, Theron Smith ’00 and Michael Sweeting ’98.
Longtime chemistry teacher and former senior mistress Mrs. Marlene Henry Smith took over the post of principal from 1998 until June 2000; and Mr. Samuel Bethell, the former vice-principal of St Anne’s School, served as principal from September 2000 to June 2008.
In September 2005, during Mr. Bethell’s tenure, the name Freeport Anglican High/Discovery Primary School was changed to Bishop Michael Eldon School (B.M.E.S.) in honour of the Right Reverend Michael Hartley Eldon, the first Bahamian Bishop of Nassau, The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Appointed Parish Priest of Grand Bahama in 1962, he was made Rural Dean of the Northern Bahamas in 1965, and Archdeacon of Grand Bahama at just 36 years old in 1967. In 1971, he was elected Bishop Suffragan of New Providence and was consecrated on St. John the Baptist Day of the same year, and was unanimously elected the eleventh Bishop of Nassau and The Bahamas at the Elective Synod in April 1972. Bishop Eldon retired as Lord Bishop of Nassau in 1996 and died in 2011.
In June 2008, Vice-Principal Anita Doherty, was named principal designate of Bishop Michael Eldon School. She assumed the post of principal of August 2008. A cafeteria was added to the covered area, providing the means for full meals (breakfast and lunch) to be prepared on site just two years later. Also under Mrs. Doherty’s leadership, the school set new benchmarks in academics as well as athletics. Students successfully completed the Microsoft IC3 Certification Program and participated in the Petroleum Measurements Program. In sports, the Warriors seized the title of Most Outstanding Athletic School, eleven Anglican Schools Festival Championships, island championships in soccer, softball, volleyball, and basketball, as well as national championships in softball and volleyball. The science department boasts wins in the SECME Mousetrap and Bottle Rocket competitions, both locally and internationally. The department also took up the challenge to turn B.M.E.S. into a “Green School” through the Eco-School Initiative; and the Battle of the Brains competition also saw students excel. In the arts, performances at the National Arts Festival gained national recognition, with students capturing top awards for Steel Pan Band performances, group vocals, individual vocals as well as speech and elocution.
Today, Bishop Michael Eldon School continues its legacy of excellence in the classroom and beyond. Now in its fiftieth year of operation, Bishop Michael Eldon High School is guided by the motto: “Lux Mentis, Lux Orbis — Invenire Veritatem: The Light of the Mind, the Light of the World — Discover the Truth.” Among the school’s thousands of graduates are distinguished alumni: Minister of State for Grand Bahama Senator The Honorable J. Kwasi Thompson ’91, restaurateur and owner of the popular Pieces Restaurant and Neptune Cocktail Lounge Rosaleen Hepburn Bailey ’75; attorney and Supreme Court Justice Petra Hanna Weekes ’79; marine biologist Gail Woon ’76; Miss Grand Bahama title holders Carolyn Russell Sands ’74, Renee Johnson Hall ’76 and Meoshi Jennifer Smith ’77; physicians Dr. Indira Minus-Grimes ’89, Dr. Keir Miller ’90 and Dr. Paulisa Ward ’03 along with nephrologist Dr. Ilsa Grant ’80, cardiologist Dr. Winston Forbes ’82, internist and pediatrician Dr. Regina Bowe ’99, family practitioner Dr. Derrick John Hoover ’99, and obstetrician and gynecologist the late Dr. Hayward Cooper, Jr. ’73; religious leaders the Reverend Fathers DeAngelo Bowe ’97, Michael Gittens ’79, Kirkland H. Russell, Jr. ’94, Denrick Rolle ’93 and Colin Saunders ’72 as well as the Reverend Lindy Russell ’73; combat correspondent and United States Army Sergeant Vincent Charles Pedican ’01; the first female president of the Rotary Club of Sunset Grand Bahama Davina Rutherford ’00; and Olympians the Honorable Iram Lewis ’83 and Donald Thomas ’02, IAAF High Jump World Champion in 2007.
