In his well-known inspirational poem, If, the poet Rudyard Kipling sets out what he regarded as the necessary qualities and characteristics for one who would aspire to the grand title of – A Man. A TRIBUTE TO
CAPTAIN LEONARD M. THOMPSON
By Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham
At Official Funeral
Marsh Harbour, Abaco
26 October 2008
In his well-known inspirational poem, If, the poet Rudyard Kipling sets out what he regarded as the necessary qualities and characteristics for one who would aspire to the grand title of – A Man.
The poet set a high bar indeed with many challenges, many exacting demands, many tests of character, many very big ifs. So high is Kipling’s bar that the number of those who would rise to it, I would venture to say, would not amount to a multitude.
Yet, he who was once a barefoot boy in Hope Town, Abaco, came to be an outstanding man on whom, I believe, the poet would have willingly and enthusiastically placed his stamp of approval.
Leonard Maurice Thompson led a most extraordinary life in which he demonstrated that he could indeed keep his head under the most trying circumstances.
He demonstrated that he had not only the determination to succeed but the patience to wait when waiting was necessary.
He was a dreamer who did not allow dreams to become his master but rather an inspiration to achieve great things for himself, his home island of
Abaco, his country and -- it is not an exaggeration to say -- the wider world.
He was able to take triumph and disaster in stride and to continue to strive for the ultimate achievement of his goals.
He was willing to risk not just his hard-earned resources in commercial ventures, but his very life in the
service of a cause he believed to be bigger than himself.
And, yes, he was able to rub shoulders with royalty and the rich and famous of the world and still not lose the common touch, that indefinable quality that so endeared him to the people of Abaco and to others who were fortunate enough to know him.
Leonard Thompson filled not only the unforgiving minute, but the many months and years of his long life with much distance run, many personal achievements gained, and many great things accomplished.
Those of us who have the good fortune to live in Abaco, or to visit, have always known that we were in the presence of not just a man but an extraordinary human being.
No words written or spoken by us today will do justice to the life and memory of Captain Thompson. Fortunately, one of his gifts to us and to posterity was the recording of much of his life story and many of his experiences in two books, I Wanted Wings and Sea To Sky.
I was greatly honoured when Captain Thompson invited me to write a foreword for his autobiographical book, I Wanted Wings, and I was delighted to read the charming stories of his boyhood and later life in Sea To Sky.
The great fiction writers of our time would have been hard-pressed to imagine the adventurous life of Leonard Thompson which began in the picturesque settlement of Hope Town on a Sunday in June 1917.
His father was William Maurice Thompson and his mother was the former Lena Muriel Albury. He was the second in a family that was to grow with seven sons and a daughter.
The fact that his father was a sea captain meant that the family would spread their wings out of Hope Town. So it was that the Thompsons moved to Nassau where the young Leonard went to school and did a one-year stint at the Royal Bank of Canada.
But Leonard wanted wings, and so it was that in 1937 he entered the profession that was to be the passion of his life.
When the United States ushered in the era of Prohibition, many soldiers of fortune – including airmen -- came to The Bahamas to help provide relief to thirsty Americans.
One of them was Captain A. B. Chalk and another was Captain Charles Cellar. Captain Chalk later established Chalk Airlines that served The Bahamas for many years, and Captain Cellar started Bahamas Airways.
It was with Captain Cellar that Leonard apprenticed as a pilot and eventually earned his wings.
When World War II broke out, the spirit of adventure and loyalty which had led his ancestors to settle in Abaco, tugged at Leonard’s heart and mind.
In 1939, an organized evil unprecedented in human history was threatening the Mother Country, the Empire and, indeed, the whole world; and the youthful Captain Thompson was determined to do his part.
The United States had not yet entered the war and there was not yet any way to enlist in The Bahamas. The nearest place for Captain Thompson to join the armed forces of the Empire was in the Dominion of Canada.
He sold whatever he could lay his hands on, including his motorcycle and his boat, and travelled north.
He wanted to fly, but after waiting for weeks to enlist as a pilot, and with his money running out, he finally agreed to start as a mechanic in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Captain Thompson received his military wings in 1942, donned the uniform of an RCAF pilot, and went to beleaguered Britain to join the struggle against the Nazis. Something else happened in Canada, but I’ll come back to that.
It was the greatest conflict in history as Britain faced the full force of Adolf Hitler’s military machine that had already overrun nearly all of Europe. And our young hero from Hope Town was in the thick of it.
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| Pictured is the bereaved family at the official funeral service for former MP Leonard Maurice Thompson at St. Francis De Sales Roman Catholic Church, Marsh Harbour, Abaco on Sunday, October 26, 2008. Mr. Thompson served in Parliament from 1949- 1967. He died on October 16, 2008. (BIS Photo/Peter Ramsay) |
As a bomber pilot, Captain Thompson flew day and night missions to attack Hitler’s fortress from the air.
Many brave young men lost their lives in this dangerous enterprise, and Captain Thompson’s bomber was hit over Hamburg on his 25th bombing mission.
With his aircraft in flames, Captain Thompson kept his head, managed to parachute, and was captured and imprisoned by the Germans for 18 months.
He was liberated by the Russians in 1945 and headed back to The Bahamas and Abaco to be with his wife -- and a son whom he had not yet seen.
While he was training in Canada he had found time for romance and was fortunate to meet and win the affections of the lovely Mary
Tofin.
Two weeks before he was deployed to Britain, he had brought his new bride to Abaco and The Bahamas. It was a lifetime love affair. She loved Leonard and Abaco, and Leonard and Abaco loved her.
Back home, Captain Thompson rejoined Bahamas Airways and became Chief Pilot flying regular flights as well as well as mercy missions to the out islands.
He befriended some of his passengers who were among the rich and famous of the day such as Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Lana Turner and Judy Garland.
But Captain Thompson made his mark on the ground as well. He and his wife established a number of successful businesses in Nassau including the Elbow Room, Thompson Brothers Liquors, Brass and Leather and Dirty Dick’s nightclub.
Having regard to the state of affairs in the country at that time, it is eloquent testimony to the humanity and courage of the man that Dirty Dick’s became the first prominent place of entertainment on Bay Street to welcome blacks as patrons.
While he was firmly established on the old Bay Street in those days, he was never one of “the Boys”. In fact, he suffered financially and lost out because he chose to go against the grain.
In later years he would recount how he lost his restaurant businesses in Nassau. In need of additional financing, he approached the single commercial bank in The Bahamas at that time only to discover that they were unwilling to fund him.
Instead, he was referred to one of the leaders of Bay Street who, as it turned out, was only too happy to make the required funding available.
But in return he wanted a 20-year lease of Captain Thompson’s Bay Street restaurants. Captain Thompson completed the lease agreement and he never recovered his Bay Street businesses.
It was not surprising that Captain Thompson would use his contacts and devote his business acumen to the development of his beloved
Abaco.
Captain Thompson’s magnificent contribution to the economic development and growth of North Abaco is unmatched by any other person.
He spearheaded the Treasure Cay Hotel and residential development that transformed the lives of people especially in Cooper’s Town, Fire Road, Blackwood, and also in Little
Abaco.
Treasure Cay is the most successful anchor project – to use today’s nomenclature -- anywhere in the Family Islands. The hotel burned shortly after it was constructed in 1959 and had to be rebuilt.
Then it went from strength to strength providing jobs and opportunities for the people of North Abaco for half a century. Today Treasure Cay has over a thousand homes and condominiums in addition to hundreds of hotel rooms, a golf course and a large marina.
Then, after 1967, it was Captain Thompson’s turn once more to suffer economic loss, this time for not being a part of the new political order.
After the change in Government in 1967 Captain Thompson recounted how his foreign partners found his continued association with them to be a liability. So he was forced out of his part-ownership of the Treasure Cay development.
Undeterred, Captain Thompson then moved on to Marsh Harbour and commenced the development of the Abaco Beach Hotel, the largest Bahamian-owned resort development in the Family Islands.
Leonard Thompson fully appreciated the vital importance of politics, entered that arena in 1949 at age 32 and was elected to the House of Assembly. The people of Abaco returned him as their representative again and again and he stayed in that place until 1968.
When The Bahamas was moving towards independence, Captain Thompson was one of those who sought to have Abaco remain a British colony.
He was part of a delegation to plead that cause in London in December 1972, but when the British Government explained that separation was not possible, he returned home and accepted the inevitable.
For that he was ostracized and threatened and his home was fire-bombed. His opponents must have come to the realization that it would take a great deal more than that to break a man like Leonard Thompson, and they eventually relented.
He became an ardent supporter of the Free National Movement and remained loyal to that party even during the divisiveness which plagued the opposition during the decade of the Seventies.
In the period leading up to the 1992 election he supported our party financially and sometimes went beyond what anybody had a right to expect from him.
Whenever I attended his regular Sunday morning boiled fish gathering he would make sure that I left with a cheque for the party. Sometimes I hesitated because I believed he had given more than his fair share.
My party owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude; and I am personally grateful to him for his advice and encouragement and all his kindnesses to me.
Such was the nature of the man we have come today to honour and to whom we must bid a reluctant farewell. He was loyal and generous, courageous and enterprising. He was a patriot and a nation-builder of the first order, a man among men.
So even in our sorrow at his loss we must celebrate his most remarkable life, something I trust we will continue to do on an institutionalized basis. We shall not forget him and we shall not permit him to be forgotten by succeeding generations.
On behalf of the Government and people of The Bahamas I extend deepest sympathy to the sons and daughters of Captain Thompson, to his grandchildren, to his brother and to all the family. Delores joins me in adding our own very personal and heartfelt condolences.
May he rest in peace.