Most astonishingly, in addition to Professor Basil Burke, the Centenary Scholar in natural sciences and Jamaica Government Scholars Locksley Comrie, Easton Douglas and Dr Warren Blake, Jones Town Trench Town and its immediate environs, a very small space of earth, less than a thousand square metres, would nurture and produce five Rhodes Scholars in just over a decade, provide the primary school base for a sixth and accommodate another.

Firstly, there was the Wolmerian, Hector Wynter of Brentford Road, who won the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in 1949 and graduated with a Master of Arts in languages and later became a Government Senator and Minister of State.

The honour next went to the Morris brothers of 118 Maxfield Avenue. Evan Morris of Kingston College the elder sibling, won in 1950. Former Headmaster of Kingston College, Douglas Forrest confirms that Evan, who was fluent in French and became Head Boy at age 16, was definitely the brightest student he had taught, a fact attested to by his schoolmate, Ian Ramsay, the legendary barrister.

Evan was followed by his brother Mervyn, the Munro graduate in 1955, who later became a celebrated poet and professor of English at UWI. In recognition of his contribution to literature and education, he was bestowed with the prestigious Order of Merit in 2009.

In 2014, he ascended the pinnacle of recognition for his work in being appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica.

After Mervyn Morris, there was the Rev Dr Earl Thames of Septimus Street and Wolmer’s Boys’ School, who achieved the distinction in 1959. A cautious Sunlight Cup batsman, he also represented Wolmer’s in the Manning Cup at outside left, played lawn tennis and was an outstanding table tennis player.

Following Earl Thames was the Jamaica College Sunlight Cup captain Anthony Abrahams, who lived at the corner of Woodrow Street and Livingstone Street. He became the Rhodes Scholar of 1962. In the years after he left the area, his father stayed at Penn Street with his cousin, Teacher Rose of Jones Town School, and both remained there until their deaths many years later. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Eastern Portland in 1980 and appointed minister of tourism and information, serving until he resigned in 1984. After politics, he worked as a journalist and became the founder of the successful Breakfast Club radio programme.

Interestingly also, Dr Franklyn Johnston, the Rhodes Scholar of 1967, received his early education within the environs of Jones Town, at Chetolah Park Primary School, before moving on to Kingston Senior School, Excelsior High, UWI and Oxford University.

Then finally, Queen’s Counsel Delroy Chuck of Kingston College, who lived for a while at 54 Lyndhurst Road, was awarded the Rhodes Scholar in 1973. A teacher of mathematics prior to Oxford and his law practice, he eventually entered politics and was elected Member of Parliament for North East St Andrew in 1989. He was appointed Speaker of the House and in the footsteps of his Trench Town-born colleague, Ossie Harding, succeeded the faulted Dorothy Lightbourne as Minister of Justice, in the aftermath of the Manatt Phelps and Phillips debacle.

After the 2011 change of government, he was reappointed Minister of Justice.