THROUGH CENTURIES OF ITS EXISTENCE, Codrington College has been writing its name on the pages of Barbados’ history.
Richard Llewellyn Arthur is chronicling his own story in the historical narrative of the St John seminary.
Not as priest or teacher, but as a figure whose indelible mark on the day-to-day life of the college and on the people who passed through its hallowed halls, has caused many to regard him as an institution in itself.
Everyone, from principal to sweeper, fondly calls him “Lew”. His impressive six-foot frame and deep, authoritative voice have been familiar to all around the man who for over half a century has been the “go-to” at Codrington College.
Arthur started to work at Codrington “around 14” and though he recently retired officially, it can almost be said that he has never left.
“My mother died when I was around the age of 13 and my aunt was the head cook at the college, so she was a very big person and she found it very difficult in walking.”
“The Mirfield Fathers ran the college and they would bring her home at lunchtime or evening time and I was there doing things around the house. One day Father Gentiles told me to come across to the college and he would find something for me to do.” That was back in 1962.
His first job was replacing glass window panes in the majestic coral stone buildings. Soon after, he was assigned to work with a land surveyor who was surveying a section of the college’s expansive 700-acre estate. Arthur and another boy held the surveyor’s mass, while the property from Ragged Point in St Philip to Consett Point in St John, was being mapped out.
In the years following he would assume a wider role of responsibility around the college and students and faculty alike would come to depend on him as an integral part of the institution. He became a key cog in the wheel of the college’s operation.
“We were suffering with manpower where the grounds were concerned. It was only me and two others – Hayden and a fellow named Nigel Sealy.” Students were no longer doing gardening chores outside on the college grounds, so he took on that responsibility.
“At that time I was active and I did a lot of work . . . I had to be at university; I had to be on the road. At that time we had no proper tools; no weed whackers were in those days. We used to weed round the trees with swords.”
“When journalism used to be done here somewhere around ‘74 you had people like Andrea Gollop, Pat Bynoe, Carl Scott, Maurice Norville, Jewel Brathwaite – all of them were trained here and I took all of them to their work at CBC, Willie Alleyne Associates, CBC, CANA. On mornings, I leave here with a packed van, drop off Cave Hill students 9 o’ clock for Use of English . . . and then I had to get all the other students in their field and then pick them back up again, yet still had to supervise the grounds.”
There is no mistaking the pride this man holds for the place where he has spent virtually all his working life. Pointing to lush green lawns with towering trees, he expresses delight that the area, once overrun with “thick bush”, is an inviting picnic spot. He credits former Codrington College principal Ian Rock for his vision in helping to create such salubrious facilities.
He said when the principal shared a newspaper article critical of the unkempt appearance of the facility’s exterior with him, he told his boss: “Prin, if you give me the equipment that I need we will get it cleaned up.” With extra whackers, blowers and other necessary equipment, he and his two-man team did the job.
On a sunny morning last week, sitting beside the large lily pond with brilliant flowers and fish darting about, 69-year-old Arthur, with an engaging smile, said: “I am now what you would call the custodian and security. That is the capacity I fall in now.”
He retired three years ago but said: “They still hold me around, owing to my relationship with the students and because I was jack of all trades. They know they can just call Lew.”
He embraces his treasure trove of memories. Many of the “boys” he befriended during their student days went on to hold prominent positions in the Anglican church – Archbishop of the West Indies Dr John Holder; former dean of the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels William Dixon; the Anglican Church of Canada’s first black bishop, Barbadian Peter Fenty are just a few.
“Boys like Eddie Alleyne, Marcus Lashley – I home some nights and these fellows call: ‘Lew what you doing home? Come down here man.’ I got to come here to be with them.”
He was on call 24 hours and they called him for everything, from a burst pipe to a burst appendix. Late at night he was summoned to get medical assistance for a student rolling in pain on the ground and remained at the hospital holding that student’s hand as he was being prepared for emergency surgery for his ruptured appendix. It was just one of the many times he stepped forward as the father-figure for young men in distress home-away-from-home.
Arthur formed lasting friendships at Codrington College. However, he observed: “Sometimes you try not to get so attached because when people are leaving, you get too emotional. You have to put in your mind the students only come here for four years and after that, no matter how attached you become, you have to let go and sometimes that is the hardest part.”
Being so close to the students, did he ever consider becoming one himself?
“No. I did not have any time for that. I was happy in my role. That’s my area, let me stay in that.”
Instead he educated himself about the one place that consumed his entire life. Its history rolls off his tongue: “Codrington College sits in the middle but beyond you had the College Plantation that was in sugar canes and Society Plantation that belong to the Codrington Trust . . . The whole idea was the plantations should supply the college with food and some financial support.”
A visitor leaving the college stopped to greet Arthur and enquired about the absence of ducks in the lily pond. He promised to bring Arthur “some more ducks” after hearing those he had given previously had “disappeared”.
The affable Arthur turned his attention back to the interview and shaking his head, said happily: “I had some good days here, man. Fun.”
