JANUARY 15th, 2003
 

On behalf of the Government and people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, and on my own behalf, I extend deepest condolences to Lady Cash, her children, and all other bereaved relatives of the noble Bahamian whose mortal remains we commit to burial this afternoon.  You have the consolation of knowing, I am sure, that Sir Gerald rather comfortably exceeded the “Three-Score-And-Ten” years promised by our Creator.  He enjoyed long life.  Much more important than that, however, you have the consolation of knowing that he had a full and productive life that touched the lives of so many thousands of people and helped give shape and substance to the pillars upon which our modern society was founded.

Sir Gerald deserves to be remembered and revered by our nation for several reasons:

Firstly, because he was a role model for our people at a time when role models were few and success-stories even fewer. But along comes this dashing, debonair young lawyer in 1940 with an uncanny resemblance to the great cinematic heart-throb of the era, Charles Boyer; so polished and sophisticated; so full of grace and charm; so imbued with self-confidence; so full of energy and wit; so ready to take on the world, not with fire and brimstone but with a calm manner, a cool intellect, and a firm but soothing voice.

What a wonderful inspiration Gerald Cash was to his contemporaries and, even more so, to the generation that would follow him.  Many indeed were the young men who looked up and said to themselves : “when I grow up I want to be just like him”.  Fortunately for all of us,  many of them did.

Sir Gerald was the quintessential gentleman.  I can see him now in his smartly tailored silk gray suits and black silk stockings bounding down Bay Street with a radiant smile on his face, pipe in hand, and a wave of friendly greeting to every passerby.  He was a man of impeccable manners who radiated warmth and had a kind word for everyone he met.

Let us never underestimate the civilizing power of such examples.  By his friendly and respectful conduct towards everyone he encountered; by the dignity he accorded everyone he met; by the grace and finesse with which he glided across the entire social spectrum, Sir Gerald Cash demonstrated throughout his life a complete fidelity to what the angels spoke of when they proclaimed the ideal of “peace on earth; goodwill to all men”.

On a personal note, I recall so very vividly the wonderful inspiration Sir Gerald was to me back in the early sixties when he was chef-de-mission for The Bahamas at international track meets abroad and I was a fledgling member of the team.  He inspired me greatly and the successes that I later achieved on the track I owe in no small part to the thoughtful words of counsel and inspiration he took the time to give me on our trips abroad.

If Sir Gerald was the quintessential gentleman in the social life of our country, he was the quintessential Independent when it came to politics.

With the emergence in the 1950’s of a new age that saw other members of the House of Assembly rapidly coalesce into partisan blocs, Gerald Cash would be among the few to swim against the tide.  He was his own man and determined to remain so.  Not for him the party drum nor the flags and banners proclaiming allegiance to some partisan cause.  No, he would continue throughout his remaining time in politics to give service to his country as he always had: to the beat of his own drum and in close concord with his own conscience.

And yet, it was a measure of the man that in spite of this independent and isolated path to which he remained committed, the esteem and warm affection in which he had always been held would continue undiminished on both sides of the newly emergent partisan divide.

The most outstanding example of the independent spirit that characterized Sir Gerald’s political persona is to be found in the annals of the House of Assembly for 1956.  It was in that time and place, nearly a half century ago, that one of the great dramas of our history was played out.  When it was all done, the barriers of racial discrimination in public places had come tumbling down.

What is too little known, however, is the singular and heroic role that Gerald Cash played in that drama.  It was a drama in which he went his own way.  And in going his own way, he went a whole lot farther than any other member of the House Select Committee on Racial Discrimination was prepared to go.

In a minority report bearing his signature and that of no other, Gerald Cash argued that the ending of racial discrimination was too important a matter to be left to non-binding social compacts.  What was imperative, he said, was to bring the full weight of the written law to bear on the matter so that a more rigourous observance of racial equality might thereby be assured.  It was a courageous position for him to take.  It was also a prophetic one that would only be vindicated years later when the framers of the constitution would think it expedient to make race-based discriminatory practices the subject of express prohibition and legal sanction.

There can be no denying, then, that in the calculation of Sir Gerald’s many public triumphs, the heroic role he played in the drama of 1956 must forever be counted his finest hour.

Finally, let me say this:

Sir Gerald Cash achieved the highest status to which any Bahamian can be raised in the body politic. His greatness, however, does not derive from that fact.  He was an outstanding Governor-General, serving longer than anyone else, but that is not the basis of his greatness.  He was thrice honoured and twice knighted by Her Majesty the Queen but that was not what made him great either.  He was President of the Senate and, before that, a member of the House of Assembly for many years but his greatness does not turn on that either.  Nor does it turn on the fact that he was a member of the Bar for 62 years.

All of these thinks speak only to the status of the man, not to the things he did or what he represented in the life and times of our country.

When all is said and done, it can, I think, be distilled to this: Sir Gerald Cash was a great man not because of the titles he earned or the status he attained but rather because by the example of his own life he enriched the life and history of our country.  It was a life of honour and of dignity; of passion and of purpose; of love for country and of service to his fellow man.  It is because of that, that a much indebted nation mourns his passing.

Another illustrious icon in the political, civic and sporting life of our country has fallen.  Sir Gerald was a wonderful human being and a great Bahamian who did our nation proud.

We shall all miss him.

May Almighty God grant comfort to his bereaved widow, Dorothy Lady Cash, his children and all his surviving relatives in this their season of loss and sorrow.

May Sir Gerald Cash rest in peace and may we long cherish his memory and the excellence of his example.