All hail, Knight of St Andrew and Stanmore! Valiant Sir Branford Taitt of the baronial manor of Saint Andrew in Barbados and not Scotland, and Stanmore in the shire of Black Rock.
I salute you with the same generosity of spirit and fervour as I saluted the late and great cricketer/politician Lord Constantine, Baron of Maraval and Nelson.
I say rise, Sir Branford, tribune of the people!
Long before Barbados reached its political majority in November 1966, Sir Branford Taitt – Branford Taitt as he then was – provided the lone voice of Barbados in New York City, United States, on the whole, and Canada in the areas of tourism promotion and industrial development.
He was the authoritative point of contact for Barbados, located at Lexington Avenue, New York City, from early 1962.
His private residence in Brooklyn became an official business centre as well for the promotion of the interests of Barbados and its citizens.
Sir Branford had relinquished his post at the United Nations in 1961 where he worked – in the technical and diplomatic cyberoffice – with another gallant Barbadian, Clyde Griffith, who also succeeded the Knight of Stanmore as Consul General at New York, before himself joining the Cabinet of the late Prime?Minister Tom Adams.
It was in the role of Consul General at New York that Sir Branford is best known.
There was none before him and none nearly half as good as he was ever since. Sir Branford understood, and executed brilliantly and with compassion, the consular responsibilities involved in looking after the concerns and care of the citizens of the state.
It was in this consular vortex that Sir Branford Taitt graduated, summa cum?laude, in city, state, nation and world politics. And, therefore it cannot be surprising to the astute student of politics that Branford Taitt would excel in the politics of the Barbadian conurbation of infinitely more diminished attenuations and tributaries.
He came into Barbadian politics already as “master of all he surveyed”! He was already a graduate politician, out of academe and the city/state of New York. He brought a Periclean meritocracy to the interplay of politics in Barbados. He won his spurs in the crucible of New York politics.
Let the Barbados Ex-Policemen Association speak to his perspicacity in bringing the tribes of Barbados together in a strange land as they gathered by the waters of Babylon.
Let the Barbadian Nurses’ Association speak; let the Combermere Alumni Association speak. Let the Modern High School Alumni Association speak. Let the Harrison College and the Queen’s College graduates abiding in the Big Apple speak to his adroitness as a political shepherd.
Let them sing his praises and let them and others proclaim from the rooftops the conviviality and mirth which his cocktail parties at the Consulate on 42nd Street, Manhattan, and the Yuletide parties at his home on Schenectady in Brooklyn brought the Barbadian family during his period as Consul General qua pontifex maximus!
Rise, Sir Branford, Thane of Saint Andrew and Baron of Stanmore! Your illustrious and gracious Sovereign has conferred upon you an honour of state which you have earned and rightly deserve.
We shall sip a libation together, as a toast to days of yore, as you tip your sword of honour in deference to Runnymede and Magna?Carta?of June 1215 Anno?Domini,?to reassert the rights of barons and the common people.
Up?and?on! You are a man for all seasons! All?hail, Sir?Branford?Taitt!