Jamaican man showcases passport issued to great-gran in 1919
The year was 1919 and transportation across Jamaica was still cumbersome, with trains running to just a few sections of the island and donkey or horse carts the main means of transport to get to a desired long-distance destination.
The car at the time was not mass-produced, but this, however, did not stop James Thompson from Richmond, St Mary to journey into the Corporate Area to acquire a passport which, at the time, was novel to the island as travel overseas was only by sea.
That passport has so far stood the test of time, with great grandson, Florida-based Attorney-At-Law Hanton Walters, now in possession of the document which he found among his mother’s belongings when she died in 2014.
Walters recently brought the passport to the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) offices in St Andrew and was also able to furnish three other family members’ passports from different eras.
