'Gerry' Alexander, the perfect gentleman

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I first met Franz 'Gerry' Alexander in the early 1990s, shortly after he returned to Jamaica upon his retirement from his job with International Institute of Cooperation on Agriculture in the Eastern Caribbean. At that time, I was working at the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, where he would show up several times a month with blood samples for diagnostic testing from his many equine patients at the stud farms in St Catherine. We often spoke about West Indies cricket (those days we were still winning), veterinary medicine, horses, life in the Eastern Caribbean, life in Jamaica, and much more.

On one of his frequent visits to the veterinary laboratory, I told him that I had read in The Gleaner a few days earlier that he had been elected the new president of the Kingston Cricket Club (KCC). "Bway, Cedric, I am not sure how that happened," he said. "I turned up at the annual general meeting of the club, took my seat, and as the election started someone got up and said that he was nominating me for the position of president. Before I could react, another chap got up and said that he was seconding the nomination, and the next thing I knew, I was elected president!"

A few months later, a consultant from the United Kingdom (UK) came to spend a few days at Veterinary Services to review a project which was being funded by a United Nations agency. It so happened that there was a Test match (WI vs England) at Sabina Park that week. The consultant asked me if I could get a ticket for him for the Saturday of the game. (I already had my ticket!) Unfortunately, by then tickets were sold out.

Anyway, I told him that a friend of mine happened to be president of the Kingston Cricket Club and that I would call him to see if he could get us a ticket. I called Dr Alexander that night and explained the predicament. "No problem," he remarked, "on Saturday morning take the gentleman to the KCC gate at Sabina Park where there will be a note with the security guard who will escort him to the President's Box."

Perfect host

On the Saturday of the game, I did just that. I never saw the gentleman again as he flew back to the UK the following day.

However, a couple days later I got a telephone call from him in which he stated that he had never enjoyed himself so much at a cricket match. I asked him if it was because England had won the game. "Not at all," he replied, "it was because Dr Alexander was the perfect host; he had never met me before but he treated me as if we had been friends for decades!"

That's the Gerry Alexander I will remember. He was always approachable, the perfect gentleman.

May his soul rest in peace.

I am, etc.,

CEDRIC LAZARUS (Dr)

cedriclazarus@yahoo.com

Bridgetown, Barbados

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