Monique Hepburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
IN THE dead of night, a train races from France to Italy at the height of the Great War in Europe.
The men of the British West Indies Regiment (the Coloured Regiment) have been called out to rescue the Italians from the Austrians who are about to do them in. The soldiers huddle together to stave off the biting cold and the terrifying uncertainties as the train takes them into the unknown. Included among them is Jamaican Stanley Stair of Animal Hill, Hanover,
"After about a year and a half in France, we received news that the Austrians were flogging the Italians and they needed help. They sent for my regiment and we made our way by train for 11 days non-stop. While travelling through a town called Brindisi in Italy, our train collided with an Italian passenger train. Our train was not badly damaged but the passenger train lost 300 people."
These are the vivid recollections of Mr. Stair, 104 years old, the oldest living World War I veteran in Hanover, and Animal Hill's oldest resident.
He was born to Adolphus and Sarah Stair in Bellview, St. Ann, on October 10, 1900. His family left St. Ann in 1907 and settled in Animal Hill with both parents working on the Haughton Court Estate.
In 1916, on the heels of his best friends, Mr. Stair left Jamaica and arrived in Taranto, Italy, set to fight in World War I as part of the Coloured Regiment. He explains his reason for going to fight: "My friends were going off to war and I did not want to be left behind, so I went. They did not return with me though, because they died in the war."
RACIAL TENSIONS
While not elaborating on the racial tensions that typified the war, especially the relationship between the British West Indies Regiment and the Europeans, the decorated war veteran chooses to dwell on the positive.
"It was a tough time then, but we had fun," said Mr. Stair, who was honoured by the French, as well as the British, for his service.
Surprisingly, the centenarian still manages to conjure up images of the war from his two-year tour, noting that he also served as a corporal during the war.
After he returned to Jamaica, work was hard to find and he and other veterans went to Cuba to work on sugar plantations for nine months during the year. He did this for four years and then returned to work on the Haughton Court property until his retirement in the mid-1960s.
Mr. Stair has married twice, with nine children from both marriages. He often reminisces on the old times and believes they were like no other.
"In the early days everything was more quiet. There were times in Hanover when the circuit court had no murders to try, but now it is different," he said. "Now most of my friends have died, but the younger generation in Animal Hill love and respect me. I am happy that, most of all, my children love me and love each other."
Accounting for the reasons for his longevity, Mr. Stair says he tries to avoid confrontations, share with others and always try to be honest.
