KENDAL, Manchester – With failed promises going back years for a monument to be erected in remembrance of the close to 200 people who died here in a train crash, on September 1, 1957, another demand is being made for it to be a reality.

Beverly East, who lost 14 relatives in the crash and authored the book titled
Reapers of the Soul (story on Kendal crash), said she is tired of hearing promises yearly.

“This is very personal to me, it might be personal to [Olivia] ‘Babsy’ Grange, no disrespect and every time I go somewhere someone says, ‘I should have been on the train. I was going to go, but this happened,’ but these people whose names I have called were on the train did not come here that night. We did not bury a single body,” she said in reference to a mass grave near the crash site.

“I don’t want to see photo ops. I don’t want to hear promises. I don’t want to read a proclamation. I want to see a groundbreaking somewhere where the monument is going to be built. Even if the monument takes a period of time, I want to see action,” she said last Sunday at the commemorative ceremony for the 67th anniversary of the crash

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen has proclaimed the anniversary of the crash as a National Day of Remembrance of the victims and survivors of the train disaster.

According to the accounts of survivors and people in the parish who heard about or witnessed the event, on Sunday, September 1, 1957, hundreds of members of St Anne’s Catholic Church in Kingston, boarded a train in Kingston and went to Montego Bay for an all-day excursion.

On their way back to Kingston, the overcrowded train crashed at Kendal, just north of Mandeville, leaving close to 200 people dead and hundreds injured.

As Grange tells it, in a 2022 Jamaica Observer interview, when she was 11, her mother, a popular West Kingston dressmaker, planned to take her, yet again, on the all-day outing. But fate was waiting to intervene.

“My mother had so many orders for outfits to make for people who were attending that she ran late and that caused us to miss the outing,” Grange recounted. And just as well.

In the dark of night the train, returning from the excursion with 1,600 souls aboard, derailed its tracks at a sleepy village called Kendal in Manchester, killing an estimated 200 persons and injuring between 400 and 700 others. The tragic event is remembered today as The Kendal Crash.

In its account of the tragedy, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust described it as “the worst railway disaster in Jamaica’s history” and the “second worst rail disaster in the world at the time”. Many of the dead, who could scarcely be picked from the carnage, were buried in a mass grave behind the crash site.

Recalling the sad event, Grange reflected: “If she wasn’t late making all these things, my mother and I would have been on that excursion. And the rest is history. You know, many people died.”

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Culture DeanRoy Bernard, who read a speech from now Culture Minister Grange at this year’s commemoration ceremony, said the ministry had committed funds to erect the monument.

“I know that what came across my desk just last week was close to about $8 million that the ministry is committing to this monument, so this is a big deal for the ministry and the Government of Jamaica through which the ministry is putting its money where its mouth is. That figure we know will likely increase as well, because of the increase in materials and other costs… We will advance funds to erect the base of the monument on which will be affixed the names of the victims,” he said.

Minister Grange, who was absent due to illness, reiterated that Russian aluminium conglomerate UC Rusal (owners of Windalco) approved the 20-year lease for the lands where the site is located.

“Such an event that we need to learn from and honour those who lost [their] lives demands our collective ritualisation and reflection as minister with responsibility for culture I have undertaken several initiatives to ensure that this is realised. My ministry is committed to ensure the erection of a monument at the crash site and has already entered into negotiations with the Jamaica Railway Corporation, which has provided a letter of no objection for this initiative,” she said.

“Additionally, bauxite/alumina company Windalco on whose lands the crash occurred has granted a 20-year lease on the proposed 6.5 acres of land where the monument will be erected,” added Grange.

Custos of Manchester Garfield Green proposed in addition to the monument for there to be a memorial history park at the crash site.

“I am proposing three things. One, the construction of a dedicated roadway leading to the crash site. This pathway creating access will serve as a tribute to those we lost and offer a space for reflection and remembrance,” he said while agreeing with the need to erect a monument.

“Where the names of the victims along with pictures and details of the crash serve as an educational tool for students and visitors inviting them to learn more about this crucial chapter in our history. Three, the creation of a permanent beautifully constructed rose garden. Each family will have a section of the garden named in their honour,” added Green.

Peter Espeut, Roman Catholic deacon and pastoral administrator of St Anne’s Church, said he supports the need for an erection of a monument at the crash site.

“There needs to be a monument at the crash site, so we St Anne’s Roman Catholic Church support the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and the Manchester Municipal Corporation to erect such a monument and we look forward to not just groundbreaking, but to the construction of the monument,” he said.