‘THERE goes Sir Hugh Foot and the little feet,’ the cricket broadcaster is supposed to have announced upon seeing Sir Hugh Foot, the last colonial governor of Jamaica, entering Sabina Park with his children.

Today, not many remember Sir Hugh, the captain general and governor in chief of Jamaica, or the period between 1951 and 1957, when he served. Elizabeth Mellows is one of the exceptions.

“I have a very good memory of that time,” said Mellows while on a recent visit to the island with her husband, Lord Prior of St John Professor Anthony Mellows.

“Sir Hugh and Lady Foot lived at Government House. Their boys were the same age as my brother and they used to come to our home and play,” she added, explaining that the Foot boys, Paul and Oliver, would visit them at Brandon Hill in Montego Bay where her father Archdeacon G B Fox was Rector of the St James Parish Church.

The Mellows were in Jamaica in September on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II to invest current Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen as a Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.

The trip back awakened strong memories of those days, between 1950 and 1955, when her family resided in the island. It also brought her together with someone with whom she shares childhood memories — Canon George Thomas, retired rector of the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega whom her father prepared for the priesthood.

“Archdeacon Fox was a very precise man,” Canon Thomas said. “He came from an army background.”

“Our church had a succession of English clergy and the curates at the time. They were very well-rounded and would play football and swim with us,” he said. “They were good men.”

“The wife of Archdeacon Fox would look after the girls in the church,” he added. “Mrs Mellows, of course, was a little girl at the time.”

She may have been young, but she remembers coming to Kingston for visits. “We used to come to Kingston to see friends. It was a very nice time… It was absolutely wonderful,” she declared.

Her early ties to the Anglican Church in Jamaica was one of the reasons she and her husband attended a service at the Kingston Parish Church. The couple established the Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement (UK) in 2007 as a trust to support National Heritage Church of England Churches & Hospices out of their interest in the church and its activities.

“For my wife, who lived in Jamaica as a child, this visit is very much a matter of coming home,” Professor Mellows said, in an address to the special Kingston Parish Church service for members of the Order of St John. “For me also, this is a coming home, experienced through her eyes.”

Professor Mellows, as Lord Prior of St John, on September 2 invested Sir Patrick Allen into the Order of Chivalry of the British Crown, which also provides first aid, health care and support services in some 42 countries around the world. The Order’s charitable activities are delivered through its two Foundations: the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem and St John Ambulance Association worldwide.

Earl Jarrett, Chairman of the National Council of Jamaica for The Order, said it was established locally in 1899, and during the Second World War, its members performed duties at the refugee and internment camp at Mona and at the Kingston Public Hospital. Through the St John Ambulance service, its volunteers and cadets have rescued and cared for the sick, injured and homeless victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters.

“The visit of the Lord Prior and his wife, with her Jamaican connections, has infused local members with greater enthusiasm for their work,” Jarrett said. “I wish more Jamaicans would adopt the St John principles of spiritual and moral strengthening combined with humanitarian and charitable work.”