Give my father his due! - David Coke, son of BB Coke, calls for national awards for his late father

David Coke, the 83-year-old son of Burnett Birthright Coke, late Speaker of the House and member of house of the Representative for South St Elizabeth in the 1950s, is calling for a posthumous national award to be conferred on his father for his contribution to the Jamaican people.

“I feel very bad to see that he has been overlooked all these years. I would love to see him honoured before I die, because I saw firsthand the sacrifice he made for this country,” Coke told The Gleaner. “The B.B. Coke High School is named after him, but I think my father deserves a posthumous national award at a high level.

“There has never been another speaker like him in the history of Parliament. He made such great contribution and has not received any recognition ... no national award.

“There has been no Speaker like him; he lifted the position to a standard that has never been surpassed and that is why when the People’s National Party lost [the election], the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), including [Alexander] Bustamante, and my father’s very good friend, Robert Lightbourne, asked him to stay on as the Speaker, but he refused because he did not think his supporters would understand.”

B.B. Coke, a schoolmaster by profession, entered representational politics in 1944, beating off the challenge of three independent opponents, including a young Donald Sangster, to win the South St Elizabeth seat for the JLP, but resigned three years later after disagreements with Bustamante.

He then ran as an independent in the 1949 election and lost by a mere 48 votes to Sangster, who replaced him as the JLP representative. However, the tables were turned in 1955 when Coke took back the seat from his nemesis by 3,934 votes and was appointed to serve as the Speaker of the House.

In a Sunday Gleaner column, titled ‘Mr Speaker - Political man of the year’, published on December 30, 1956, the newspaper’s political reporter lauded B.B. Coke for creating a sense of Parliament in the House of Representatives by demonstrating tolerance and a level of fairness that was never there before.

“Mr Coke has succeeded in doing so by the application of one outstanding quality – sincerity,” the column read . “He rules with impartiality without consideration of party.”

“As a result, Mr Coke has commanded a respect for the Speaker’s chair which has never been commanded by previous speakers.

“It is always a pleasure to see Mr Coke in a difficult situation in which the dignity of the chair is threatened. His face clouds and he begins to exert his authority, then his sense of humor comes to the front and the House is again proceeding merrily along, with not one bit of respect lost for the chair in the process.”

Noted historian, Lance Neita supports the call for B.B. Coke to be properly recognised. “I am in total support of such a call because he gave a stellar contribution to the Jamaican people, was highly respected by his people in St Elizabeth and by both sides of the House during his time.”

“He was an independent-minded person and served in the era of individuals like Alexander Bustamante, Wills Isaacs and Norman Manley, who could be quite critical of the Speaker, but he stood up to them,” Neita added, “Parliamentarians nowadays need to have that kind of a role model … independent, fair and bold.”

B.B. Coke and his wife, Ivy, produced five children, three have passed, leaving David and his sister, Peach, who lives in the United States.

Early Years

The family lived in Portsea, St Elizabeth, where the children were homeschooled through their elementary years. According to David Coke, his mother, a trained nurse, opted to care for her children, while supporting her husband’s yearning to serve the people.

“In those days, he was just one of five persons in the community that had cars, and community members could wake him up any hours of the night when there was an emergency because he would not say no,” said David.

“In fact, he ran his campaign without money, because people supported him with resources like gas and other necessities to move around,” He added, “I am wondering, up to this day, how he did it because he refused to take things from the rich people.

“I remember we would have very little at home and I would hear my mother talking to him about it. He would acknowledge, but would immediately remind her that he also has an obligation to the people.”

B.B. Coke was also a passionate agriculturist and is credited for starting Jamaica’s Farm Work Programme.

“He was still a teacher when he started the Farm Work Programme. I was there with him at the school when over 600 men collected their tickets to travel to the US to work,” he said. “Whether he was in Government or Opposition, he lobbied constantly for better for the people.

“My father got the first set of health clinics for South St Elizabeth, and it was under his watch that all the main roads in his constituency was asphalted in 1959.

Potable water came to St Elizabeth, courtesy of a strong lobby from B.B. Coke, who reportedly cried openly in the House of Representatives when it was announced that the precious commodity would be available in communities in the parish in 1947. He was also responsible for the establishment of the St Elizabeth Technical High School.

In 1957, Coke travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with Prime Minister Harold McMillan over concerns for the welfare of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals who were being attacked by the notorious British gangs called the Teddy Boys. He also led a delegation to Australia, where he spoke out against racism in 1959.

“Politics was enjoyable in those days ... not like politics today. In those days, everyone celebrated together the day after the elections,”

David recalls

Despite their political rivalry, Coke and Sangster were close friends who shared a love for cricket and even played on the same team in St Elizabeth. It was therefore not surprising to see B.B. Coke, a skilled piano player, offer his time to play while Sangster’s body was lying in state at Mountainside Church following his death in April 1967. B.B. Coke died five months later.

“I was stunned [when he died] because he was a wonderful father. It was not a good feeling when papa died. Every time I think about him and the sacrifice he made for the people,” David said.

“Even on his sickbed, he was concerned about the state of the people,” David recalls. “I was in Mandeville, where I saw him two days before [he died], and he was concerned that Shearer gave away the materials that he had lobbied for to fix up the houses of the people.

“I went to look for him and all he was concerned about was the people of Northhampton, whom he had promised to get zinc to replace their thatch roofs.”

Following the death of B.B. Coke on August 30, 1967, The Gleaner editorial read, “Mr Coke practised as a politician between 1944, when he was first elected to the House of Representatives, and his death yesterday.

“Mr Coke was not a politician in the true sense of the word. His did not have the swiftness of tongue, the deftness of touch, the nicety and precision that make the politician; nor was he deeply concerned with isms and the claims of different economic systems.

“Coke was simply the people’s man. He wanted for his people more opportunity to make a living in agriculture or in employment; he wanted for his community better roads, more housing, post offices and bridges, and he wanted for their children more schools. That was the essential Burnett Coke, as a member of the House of Representatives.”