Martin Henry

John Pringle, illustrious first Director of Tourism, etc., is dead. Pringle was a white Jamaican and may have been mistaken by many to be a son of the old plantocracy of slavery, as I would have, before discovering his family history in a research project on the story of Walkerswood Community Development.

Actually, John Pringle's grandfather, himself John Pringle, came to Jamaica as a poor Scottish doctor in the early 1870s. The original John was born in the Scottish Outer Hebrides in 1849. On the advice of British Foreign Secretary, Lord Grey of Farradon, an avid angler, for whom Pringle was a 'gillie', a sportsman's attendant, on fishing expeditions in Scotland, he migrated to Jamaica in search of opportunity.

In 1875 Pringle married into the established old Jamaican Levy family which had Jewish roots. His wife, Amy, was the daughter of Isaac Levy, Custos of St. Catherine. The same Levy stock of Jamaica Broilers.

With assistance from his well-to-do father-in-law, Pringle gradually abandoned medicine for the business of land acquisition and farming. He became the largest landowner in Jamaica, with some 50 properties, and the biggest private banana producer outside of the companies dominated by the mighty United Fruit Company. Pringle owned properties such as Roaring River, Laughing Waters, and Bromley in St. Ann, Cape Clear in St. Mary, and Manor Park in St. Andrew where he mostly lived. He was elected to the Legislative Council, and was knighted.

Apparently John Pringle brought with him to Jamaica, from his own experiences on the fringes of British society in the Outer Hebrides, a working social conscience which members of his family inherited.

Towards the end of his life Pringle was influential in the movement which led to the formation of the Jamaica Banana Producers' Association (JBPA) in 1927.

Unfair dominance

The JBPA was a cooperative of big and small private banana farmers, formed to challenge the unfair dominance of the banana trade by the banana companies particularly the American United Fruit Company and the British Elders and Fyffes. Norman Manley vividly narrates the banana battles and his legal role in the creation of the JBPA in his unfinished autobiographical work. The JBPA is today the Jamaica Producers' Group.

Jamaica Welfare emerged out of the banana battles, ironically funded by 'the enemy', United Fruit Company, with one U.S. cent from each bunch of banana exported from Jamaica. The very first place that Jamaica Welfare established a pioneer club for community development, and which led to the establishment of a cooperative farm, was in Walkerswood, St. Ann, with the influence and support of Sir John Pringle's daughter, Minnie Pringle-Simson.

Minnie had inherited the Bromley property in Walkerswood from her father and used it as a centre for social activism. She shared a friendship with Norman Manley who often visited Bromley. The Pringles lent support and had a deep influence on both Jamaica Welfare [now the Social Development Commission] and the People's National Party. Today's Walkerswood Caribbean Foods company, located on the Bromley property, operated on semi-cooperative principles and which is doing quite well, is a grandchild of that first Jamaica Welfare cooperative farm.

Sir John, the white immigrant, quietly supported Marcus Garvey's work for Black upliftment. In Garvey's own words in his autobiographical sketches, "I had a large number of white friends, who encouraged and helped me. I succeeded to a great extent in establishing the [Universal Negro Improvement] Association in Jamaica with the assistance of a Catholic Bishop, the Governor, Sir John Pringle, the Rev. Willie Grant, a Scottish clergyman, and several other white friends."

The recently passed John Pringle is a scion of this heritage, walking in his grandfather's footsteps as The Gleaner's euological editorial of December 14, made so clear - without this largely unknown historical background, of course.

Martin Henry is a communication specialist.