Hail to a ‘Quiet Giant’ - Wolmerian Eric Coleridge Barnett remembered

The entire Wolmer’s family is saddened by the recent passing of Mr Eric Coleridge Barnett and I wish to use this medium to record my condolences on the passing of a man who had a profound influence, not just on the lives of a generation of Wolmerians,  on my life personally.

Mr Barnett came back to Wolmer’s Boys' School as headmaster at the start of the 1979 — 1980 academic year. Wolmer’s Boys’ School was going through a very difficult time and needed a quiet, passionate, yet resolute individual to captain the ship and lead the school from the stormy seas to safe harbour where all stakeholders could work together to reclaim the greatness that was Wolmer’s Boys' School.

As an old boy of the school, Mr Barnett saw it as his personal mission to get the best out of his charges and to inject the sort of pride of place in the hearts and minds of the students during his tenure.

He did his best to ensure that the Wolmer’s Old Boys' Association, the Parent-Teachers Association, the Wolmer’s Trust and Board of Management understood their role in reclaiming the greatness that was Wolmer’s. This was evidenced by regular participation and visibility in all areas of school life. 

Wolmerians of the 1980s will recall that the last Friday of every month was Old Boys' devotions and we were in awe to see the many leaders of business, religion, the military and government come and take part in our devotions. People like Sir Florizel Glasspole (Governor General at the time), Colonel Trevor MacMillan (Jamaica Defence Force), Mr Roy Dickson (Gleaner), Mr Sameer Younis, Mr KD Knight, Peter Jeffery Dujon, and Mr Howard Hamilton and many other prominent old boys were frequent visitors to the school.

They made the then students know of their personal responsibility to keep the Wolmerian flag flying high.

On the matter of personal responsibility, Mr Barnett instituted a programme where each form and year group was tasked with the responsibility of rehabilitation and restoration of their own classrooms during the 1982 – 1983 academic year. He made it into a competition and my third form class (3A) won the competition. The prize for the winning form was a day trip to Lime Cay. The form travelled on a JDF Coast Guard vessel to Lime Cay and had a wonderful time.

The fifth form year group did not seem to buy into his vision and this was evidenced by the manner in which some members of the year group treated school property.

Mr Barnett took the bold decision to suspend the entire fifth form year group and bring in their parents. At the end of the day, everyone involved understood what was meant by collective responsibility and what it meant for the grooming of future leaders.

Mr Barnett was a firm believer in building the next generation of leaders and made it a point of duty to make each student know that he was a leader in his own right. He never addressed us as boys; he always addressed us collectively as “gentlemen”, and individually as Mr Case, Mr Walker, Mr Gayle, and so on.

Mr Barnett always asked of the leadership of any group of students, how things were going and what he could do to help.  I had regular meetings with him during my time as a student, primarily as the sergeant major of the cadets to discuss the activities of the unit, and then as deputy head boy, to discuss matters relevant to the good management of the prefect and student bodies.

It was in these meetings that students in leadership got to see the other side of our headmaster -- the proud Wolmerian. He had the photograph of the prefect body of 1955 of which he was a member proudly displayed in his study.

Mr Barnett believed in the value of the sixth form years and its role in the development of student leaders. In the early 1980s, he resisted giving up the Wolmer’s sixth form to the burgeoning community college movement as he knew it would have a negative impact on the Wolmer’s experience. Oh, how history has absolved him of the criticism that he faced at the time. Many of the schools that gave up their sixth forms have now put them back in place.

The Sir Florizel Glasspole Sixth Form Building at Wolmer’s Schools stand in memorial of the efforts of the leadership of the Wolmer’s Trust, the Wolmer’s 250^th Anniversary Committee led by Sir Florizel Glasspole, Miss Audrey Pinto and Mr Barnett in not yielding to the community college drive.

Even after you ceased being a student, Mr Barnett was always accommodating to any old boy to spend 10 minutes and to find out how they were doing in their chosen profession, how they were doing in life and more importantly, how they could give back to their alma mater.

 He encouraged past students to get involved with the Wolmer’s Old Boys' Association and led from the front in this regard.

He would take the sitting head boy and his deputies to association luncheons and banquets at the Jamaica Pegasus to engender that spirit of camaraderie and affection for “The School We All Love Dearly”.

Mr Barnett celebrated the successes of old boys in the wider community through announcements at morning devotions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week. I can still remember the announcement in 1984 of former deputy head boy and Sergeant Major Rocky Meade (now Major General, Chief of Defence Staff – Jamaica Defence Force) being the top overseas student at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in the United Kingdom and the honour and privilege bestowed on Rocky to have lunch with Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

I can still remember Peter Goldson (my first head boy) and Evan Dale Abel being named as Jamaica Rhodes Scholars for consecutive years (1985 & 1986). Mr Barnett always beamed with pride when making these announcements and this was a powerful motivation to us, the gentlemen students of Wolmer’s Boys School.

As a headmaster, Mr Barnett was effective in leading a team of committed professionals, who by and large, wanted the best for their students. Mr Barnett introduced the pool system where students could have a wider choice of subjects and did not have to be myopic in their outlook. You could mix the sciences with business or the arts, becoming a more rounded individual.

He insisted that all fourth form students did a minimum of eight subjects for GCE Ordinary Levels/CXC examinations. You were only allowed to drop one of these subjects at the fifth form level. Wolmer’s regained its prowess as an academic powerhouse and it set the foundation which carries on today whereby Wolmer’s Boys School is the top all-male high school in Jamaica.

He was an effective disciplinarian and we remember the devotions being held after school in the 2 p.m. blazing sun because we would not settle down and behave as the gentlemen. There was a joke on the University of the West Indies Mona campus in the early 1990s that you could recognise a Wolmerian because of their “tan”,

He encouraged brilliant students to take part in extra-curricular activities, as he was a firm believer in a young person being well rounded and that being multifaceted gave you a better chance at winning scholarships.

Mr Barnett played a pivotal role in the recovery efforts of two major events of devastation to the physical plant of the school, Hurricane Gilbert which hit on September 12, 1988 and the ‘Great Fire’ of January 7, 1991. That fire of 1991 destroyed the administrative offices, the headmaster’s office and the assembly hall.

More significantly, the fire destroyed the Wolmer’s archives, where the records of the greatness of the school, photographs of significant milestones and winning teams for over a century were lost.

Wolmer’s had seen tragedy before. After all, the school is located at Quebec Lodge because of the destruction of the original campus at the corner of South Parade and Church Street by the earthquake on the afternoon of January 14, 1907.

Aware of this history, Mr Barnett quickly rallied the troops to raise funds to build a new administrative building, which now stands in place along with restored and donated photographs, so that future generations of Wolmerians could see the legacy of their school.

The Barnett years (1979 — 1998) were indeed good years in the annals of Wolmerian history and were full of successes and we are grateful for his family for lending him to us for what I would like to believe, was his God given mission in life.

Walk good Mr Barnett, you answered the Wolmer’s clarion call in 1979, you ran your race, you ensured that John Wolmer’s dream remains as a going concern to train future generations of Jamaican men with the core values of “Honesty, Integrity and Loyalty”.

I do believe that you were anointed to do God’s work at Wolmer’s Boys School, as you strived and lived the Wolmerian motto; which is derived from Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10;

“Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; 

You did well, Sir!

Rest in Eternal Peace.

AGE QUOD AGIS

MAJOR MARLON M.C. CASE is a member of the Wolmer's Class of 1985.  Feedback:  editorial@gleanerjm.com