Barrett bows out - JamaicaObserver.com

Sunday, November 22, 2009 12:00 AM

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Barrett bows out

Custos Rotolorum of Trelawny to demit office on 70th birthday

BY HORACE HINES, Observer West reporter

Thursday, July 02, 2009

FALMOUTH, Trelawny
Trelawny's custos, Royland Barrett, has decided to call it quits after 19 years in the post.

BARRETT... The Governor General has told me that I should try to recommend someone for the job but I am not doing it, I feel everybody must float.

"When he (GG) took office, he called us one by one and I indicated to him that I intended to leave December 14 this year, on my birthday. I think it is time I leave and give someone else the opportunity," Custos Barrett stated during an exclusive interview with the Observer West at his home, in the hills of Bogue Gate, Trelawny, earlier this week.

An amicable man, whose health has faltered in recent years, Barrett says he is satisfied with his achievements in terms of forging a closer relationship between his post and the populace.

"I think I did quite well because I saw custos as a position that was just too aloof from the people they needed to come close. I think I have accomplished that," he noted. "The busier and more exposed you are, is the busier and more exposed you will be. If you just stay home when invited and don't go anywhere then they just leave you out".

Barrett, a lawyer, succeeded Valentine Parnell as custos in 1990.

"Some people are saying if Mr Barrett in there so long, might as well you leave him in there let him die in it. But if I am there, I must be either working hard or go a me yard," he chuckled.

Now that he is going, the obvious question of a replacement has come up.

But it's a question that he is unwilling to answer.
"The Governor General has told me that I should try to recommend someone for the job but I am not doing it, I feel everybody must float. For instance when I became conscious of the vacancy for custos there were four persons vying for the post. A newspaper ran some polls to find out who should be given the nod and I headed four of them and was second in the other," he recalled.

Recently, Barrett has at times been assisted in the position by Evelyn Dyer-Spence, president of the Trelawny Lay Magistrates Association.

However, whoever takes over will have the benefit of Barrett's research to assist them in understanding the role.

"When I took the job I asked what are the duties of custos and no one was willing to tell me. I did the research and wrote a little booklet about it and once the new custodees came in, I handed it to them. When the GG came in office he was given one. He has now undertaken, as a good student to go further and to convert it into a handbook so that the custodees can have a comprehensive advice book," he said.

The custos is the Governor General's representative. It's a largely voluntary position, aspects of which, according to Barrett, need revamping.

"What is giving us a hard time now is the travelling, because when I am called into Kingston, which is pretty often it takes away a lot of my time and money."
He also explained that there were other needs.

"We don't have any office, no secretary, no equipment, no nothing and that is kind of difficult as it prevents the custos from being more visible. If you want to communicate you have to buy your own paper. It is an awkward thing and as expense increases it gets kind of annoying and boring," he said.

Barrett, a renal patient who undergoes dialysis twice weekly, revealed that the next phase of his life will be devoted to the documenting of historical anecdotes of the parish of Trelawny which he will continue to research.

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