People who have no sense of history would have scoffed at this week’s Sunday Observer lead story that told of the State’s unwillingness to recognise the contribution of Mrs Christie Allison Lindo to the Jamaican National Anthem.

Thankfully, however, there are still some individuals who respect the effort and sacrifice of service to country and, as such, are not willing to sit by and allow those opposed to that ideal to have their way.

Mr Merrick Needham, the well-known logistics and protocol consultant, is, therefore, to be commended for his strident advocacy on behalf of Mrs Lindo and her departed first husband, Mr Eugene Mapletoft Poulle.

As the Sunday Observer reported, the couple was among the four persons who contributed to the creation of the National Anthem.

The chorus, “Jamaica, land we love”, we are told, came from Mrs Poulle with arrangement for the tune coming from her late husband.

However, neither Mr Poulle, who died in 1981, nor his then-wife, has ever been formally acknowledged by the Jamaican Government for their contribution to the Anthem.

For whatever reason, all the accolades for the creation of the Anthem have gone to the other two members of the team that collaborated on the work — the late Rev Hugh Sherlock and the late Robert Lightbourne, who are two men of the highest distinction and from whom we take nothing.

According to Mr Needham, he has, since 1989 been trying to get the Government to accord Mr and Mrs Poulle the honour they deserve. However, his attempts have been largely unsuccessful.

In fact, the only fruit of his advocacy so far is acknowledgement of the Poulles’ contribution in the revised Jamaica Information Service handbook on emblems and symbols, and that, Mr Needham told us, came only after his persistence.

So now, the handbook states: “The Anthem is the creative work of four persons — the late Rev and Hon Hugh Sherlock, OJ, OBE; the late Hon Robert Lightbourne, OJ; the late Mapletoft Poulle and Mrs Poulle (now Mrs Raymond Lindo).”

We are puzzled that State officials, who should consider it part of their remit to ensure the integrity of our history, appear unwilling to right the wrong in this case.

We are even more befuddled that a government that prided itself on promoting nationalism would have rejected Mr Needham’s nomination of Mrs Lindo for a Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service in the early 2000s.

As Mr Needham correctly argued in our story, a badge of honour is really insignificant and seemingly small in some ways, given the scale of Mrs Lindo’s contribution to the birth of our new nation. However, he made the nomination believing that had he submitted her name for a higher honour it would have been turned down.

No one can successfully challenge his position that this is indeed a national disgrace, and those who are responsible for denying the Poulles their just credit should be ashamed of themselves.

The present Government should not allow this folly to continue. After all, the Poulles have contributed to giving Jamaica a most invaluable asset. If the National Anthem is worth anything, let us make haste to right this wrong.