The Tribune

WHEN Jack Hayward arrived in the Bahamas 57 years ago, Bahamians quickly realised that they had a different type of Englishman in their midst. Surely his mould must have been broken after his creation, because there could never be a second Jack Hayward. He was dogged in his beliefs, English to the core and blunt in speaking his mind.

He was young — only 42 years old — charming, witty, generous and tenaciously British when he arrived in Freeport in 1957. He first came to the Bahamas with his parents in 1951. His father, Sir Charles Hayward, founder of the Firth, Cleveland group of companies, was Freeport founder Wallace Grove’s first partner.

“I am totally out of place in this era,” Jack was quick to acknowledge, making no apologies for his fervent belief in the furtherance of the Empire and its traditions. He recorded his recreations in Who’s Who, as mainly “promoting British endeavours, mainly in sport… protecting the British landscape, keeping all things bright, beautiful and British.”

He soon introduced the red London double decker buses to Freeport and got the General Post Office to establish British-style red telephone and pillar boxes. It is said that visiting Royal Navy sailors were always given a dinner at a local Freeport restaurant “compliments of Sir Jack.” It is little wonder that forevermore he was to be known as “Union Jack”.

Sir Jack was a devoted thesbian and built a modern theatre for the Freeport Players Guild, where he was often the lead actor.

But the romance with Freeport almost came to an end when on February 15, 1968, The Times of London reported that Sir Charles Hayward, Sir Jack’s father was “hopping mad.” Sir Charles had learned that his partner Wallace Groves had “sold out to a little-known Filipino company in a deal worth $80m”.

The Hayward family, who owned a quarter of the shares in the Port Authority, had not been consulted. All the senior Hayward knew of the deal was “what he had read in the London newspapers.”

This was the infamous Benguet deal, which almost broke Freeport, and even created disquiet within the Pindling cabinet, many of whom claimed they knew nothing about the secret transaction. Obviously the deal was quietly negotiated with the then prime minister, the late Sir Lynden. All the shareholders of the Port Authority — with the exception of the Haywards — had exchanged their shares for Benquet shares while the Bahamas government took seven and a half per cent of the Port Authority with the government also having the right to exchange its shares with Benquet whenever it wished.

Today, there are former associates who will tell you that they spent their time trying to keep a microphone out of Sir Jack’s hands for he would not be censored. He spoke his mind, especially when he believed that the opponent was hitting below the belt.

However, the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back came with the “bend or break” speech delivered at the opening of the BORCO refinery in Freeport on July 26, 1969. To the assembled businessmen, Sir Lynden Pindling warned: “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 be broken.” This was the speech from which Freeport never fully recovered.

Quietly, those investors who could, packed their bags, liquidated their holdings and left Freeport. Sir Jack was annoyed that the Port was not standing up for its licensees and fighting the government for breach of the Hawksbill Creek agreement. This was the agreement that had enticed all of them to Freeport. In Sir Jack’s view the “Port Authority has acted in a way which is wishy-washy, spineless and gutless…”

“Our rights have been taken away,” he declared, “I have lived in the Bahamas since 1951, have invested many millions in money in the Bahamas, but in the last few weeks I have felt a stranger in a strange land. I have given a lot of money and time to Bahamian affairs and charities and for the first time I feel unwanted.”

Sir Jack announced his decision to liquidate all of his assets in Freeport because of the government’s attitude.

“We must decide one way or another which way we are going,” he said. “You cannot live in a vacuum any longer…Mr Pindling’s ‘bend or break’ speech (delivered two months earlier) resolved a lot of people like us where we are going. It certainly helped our decision to liquidate.”

Sir Jack had announced that he had decided to liquidate and leave. However, he didn’t completely close the door. “But if someone will decide ‘let’s fight’ on the Hawksbill Creek Act, let’s go to arbitration and fight, then I will be happy to join the fight,“ he said.

Wallace Groves, in an official statement, was quick to disassociate Sir Jack’s views with those of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He made it clear that Sir Jack, although vice president, was not speaking as an officer or director of the Port Authority.

Sir Jack packed his bags and left for England to read the lesson on Lundy Island, the island he had purchased for Britain’s National Trust. Grand Bahamians feared he would not return. However, they were jubilant when after the Lundy ceremony, he phoned Freeport to say that he was on his way back.

“We must show good old ‘Union Jack’ that we are with him and his father in the fight for the right of all the licensees who came here because of the Hawkbill Creek agreement and who object to being treated like second-class citizens,” said a licensee.

The people of Freeport planned a rousing welcome. When his plane touched down that Sunday night and he stepped onto the platform, a rousing cheer went up from the placard-waving crowd. As far as the eye could see and the ear could hear there were crowds of cheering people to welcome home their hero. Tears filled his eyes. “I intend to carry on he announced.” And carry on he did. That night was indeed his finest hour.

At 2pm on February 3rd, a funeral service will be held for Sir Jack in his hometown of Wolverhampton, England. A memorial service also will be held for him in Freeport at a date to be announced.

Brigadier John Anderson, president of the 6th Queen’s Own Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association has offered to send a representative to the funeral “to honour a man who was our last known living link with the Chindit operation” in Burma in World War II. It was discovered that it was Sir Jack, who as a Royal Air Force officer flying Dakota transporters to the 14th Army in Burma, flew the third Battalion of the Gurkha Regiment behind enemy lines in the second Chindit operation in Burma. The subsequent battle resulted in the award of the two Victoria Crosses won by the Regiment in that battle.

“Sir Jack,” wrote Brigadier Anderson, “was a great friend of Gurkhas, but perhaps none more so than the 6th Gurkhas, which had benefited from a generous donation last year that permitted 1,100 Gurkha pensioners, as well as their wives and children, to assemble in Nepal in an unforgettable reunion of our Regiment.”

The Regiment had wanted Sir Jack to join them in Nepal for what might well be their final Durbar. Unfortunately, because of failing health, Sir Jack had to decline.