35 to receive awards in Independence Day Honours

A champion of the disabled, a leader of industry and a career banker are the recipients of this country’s highest national awards in this year’s Independence Day Honours.  

An honorary title is also to be bestowed on two foreign leaders, the heads of state of Guyana and Rwanda.

The Order of Freedom of Barbados is to be conferred on Kerryann Ifill, who has been blind since age four. The first woman to serve as President of the Senate from 2012 to 2018 – also the first person with a disability and the youngest ever to hold the post – is being honoured for “distinguished service” in the Upper Chamber and “outstanding contribution to the enfranchisement of people living with disabilities through education, employment and exposure”.  

The current President of the Senate, Reginald Farley, has also been honoured with the Order of Freedom of Barbados for his distinguished career as a policymaker, diplomat, leader of industry and accountant. The former minister in the Owen Arthur administration is also being recognised for “his sterling contribution to national and business development as well as the cohesion of the Social Partnership” and for exceptional Senate leadership.  

The third recipient of the country’s apex national honour is banking and insurance executive Dodridge Miller, honouring his “exceptional career in local and regional banking, Caribbean money management and entrepreneurship and his sterling contribution as a transformational and international financial leader”. 

In March, Miller retired after helming Sagicor Life Insurance Company and Sagicor Financial Company Ltd, which capped a 33-year career with the financial services giant.

Two foreign leaders have also been given the island’s highest national award in an honorary capacity. 

President of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali is being recognised for a “strong commitment to enhanced cooperation and collaboration to achieve regional integration and to foster deeper social and economic partnerships particularly in relation to food and nutrition security and for the upliftment of the people of Barbados and the region”. 

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has also been acknowledged with an honorary Order of Freedom of Barbados in recognition of his “influential and constructive role, unswerving commitment and proactivity” in the mission to foster collaboration, and positive international relations and promote economic diplomacy through the Pan African Network between Africa and the Caribbean.

Among the 35 national awardees are Barbadian global athletic champion Sada Williams, fish vendor and philanthropist Sharon Bellamy-Thompson, bodybuilding administrator and youth advocate Ivor Worrell, and broadcaster and media specialist Dr Allyson Leacock.  

Dr Leacock, a former general manager of the state-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation and the current chair of the Barbados Broadcasting Authority, is being recognised with the country’s second highest honour – Order of the Republic – for her “sterling contribution to broadcasting, media relations, corporate communications, training, human resource development and educational technology, and for her distinguished service to Barbados as Head of the National Transformation Initiative”.  

Williams gets the Gold Trident of Excellence honour for her “outstanding achievements as a world-class athlete in sport and in particular track and field and her unrelenting efforts to bring global acclaim to Barbados”.    

Bellamy-Thompson is also being acknowledged with the conferment of the Barbados Service Medal for her sterling contribution to Barbados as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of the ‘Fishers of Men’ charity and her outstanding community service to assist children in care and those with disabilities, the homeless and vulnerable families across Barbados. 

Worrell will also receive the Barbados Service Medal for his “meritorious service as a youth advocate and social worker and his sterling contributions to community empowerment and the development of the sport of bodybuilding in Barbados”. 

(EJ) 

 

RECIPIENTS OF 2023 NATIONAL HONOURS

 

 

ORDER OF FREEDOM OF BARBADOS 

Reginald Richardo Farley, J.P. 

Kerryann Fenelle Ifill, S.C.M.  

Dodridge Denton Miller  

  

HONOURARY AWARDS ( ORDER OF FREEDOM  OF BARBADOS)   

His Excellency Paul Kagame        

His Excellency Mohamed Irfaan Ali  

        

ORDER OF THE REPUBLIC  

Allyson Irmene Leacock, Ph.D

Esther Elizabeth Phillips  

Dr Grantley Einstein DeClaire Morris  

GOLD AWARD OF ACHIEVEMENT 

Angela Mary Simpson   

  

GOLD TRIDENT OF EXCELLENCE 

Winston Hudson Bayley   

Dr Ermine Claudine Augusta Belle

Canon Curtis Stephen Roosevelt Goodridge, J.P.

Daisy Suzanne King 

Sada Amelia Wenel Williams   

  

SILVER TRIDENT OF EXCELLENCE  

Daniel Owusu Boamah, Ph.D.   

Dr Jacqueline Michelle King   

Karen Louise Meakins   

Mitchell Anderson Nicholls  

Lana Cyrilene Yard   

 

BARBADOS SERVICE STAR 

  

Pamelia Tercina Brereton  

Heather Yvette Deane  

Lt. Commander Carl Alphonza Farley   

Maurice Wilfred  Gaskin   

Reverend Stephen Anderson Lorde, J.P., Ph.D.    

Natalie Shermaine Murray, J.P   

Kevin O’neil Vaughan    

                   

BARBADOS SERVICE MEDAL 

Sharon Felicia Bellamy-Thompson   

Renford Mark Harper  

Pauline Ernesta Holder, J.P.   

Evelina Cecilia King-Harper, J.P.   

Betty Omega Waithe, J.P.  

Colin Anderson Vandyne Williams 

Ivor Sinclair Worrell, J.P.  

  

BARBADOS BRAVERY MEDAL 

Roger Orlando Rock   

Marlon Elrico Tempro