Montserrat’s Sir Howard Fergus passes away

Academic, author and historian, Sir Howard Fergus, who served as acting governor of this British Overseas Territory on numerous occasions has died, the Government Information Unit has confirmed. He was 85 years- old. 

The Unit gave no details regarding his death late Thursday, but former government minister Claude Hogan said that he “was an international icon rising from humble beginnings in Montserrat. 

“May our heart ‘flags’ fly his depth of loyalty, devotion, commitment, dedication, intellect and wisdom used by him in the founding and fostering of our modern-day Montserrat. It was a quest that took him a lifetime of work on earth as Montserrat was his only home and University of the West Indies (UWI) his haven. May his Soul Rest in Perpetual Peace,” Hogan wrote on his Facebook page. 

“Only very recently he helped me prepare the annual St Patrick’s Day Lecture of which he was a Founding Father, as he was with so many Montserrat institutions of education, culture, the arts, science, legislation and history of Montserrat, the region and the world,” Hogan added. 

Sir Howard, who earned a doctorate from UWI in 1978, retired from the University in 2004 as Professor of Eastern Caribbean Studies. 

He wrote and edited more than 14 books, including several works on Montserratian history and society. His scholarly works have been published in a number of international journals and he was also an established poet. 

Sir Howard was the winner of The Caribbean Writer Poetry Prize in 1992, and of the David Hough Literary Prize for an author residing in the Caribbean in 2002. 

His most important work is the book Montserrat: History of a Caribbean Colony published in 1994 that gave a historical account supported by copious references to primary sources and contains chapters on settlement, sugar, slavery, emancipation, cotton, limes and The Montserrat Company, politics, education, and arts and culture. 

Fergus wrote the words for the national song of Monsterrat “Motherland”. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order (KBE) and received the Order of Excellence from the government of Montserrat in 2014.