By Yunus S Saliu
The outgoing British High Commissioner to The Gambia Tuesday unveiled a plaque at the Arch 22nd Banjul in honor of the 1946 air accident victims that happened in the territory of The Gambia in 1946.
Her Excellency Sharon Wardle was joined by Honorable Hamat NK Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture, officials of National Centre for Arts and Culture and Deputy Mayor of Banjul City Council to unveil the plaque at the Arch 22nd Banjul.
As per the unveiled plaque donated to the National Council for Arts and Culture by the British High Commission Banjul the names of those that involved in the crash are J. Acton, R. Acton, E.Botton, S Camarinha, E. Campbell, J Cotter, J. Cumming, A Dinarte, A. Fisher, A Hannah, E. Heath, M. Herington, E. Jenson, R. Lafone, A McMurtrie, C. Mendelsohn, J. Miller, H. Mitton, N. Musson, R. Peruoini, G. Schibsye, E. Slater, J. Vallejo and M. Wade.
The British High Commissioner to The Gambia, HE Sharon Wardle gave a brief background on the unveiled plaque in the honor of the 1946 air accident victims.
She expressed that on 7th September 2019 British High Commission organized a smooth ceremony at the Jeshwang cemetery to commemorate those who lost their lives in the 1946 air crash.
On behalf of the British High Commission, she profoundly grateful to the National Centre for Arts and Culture for their support and helping the Commission to put together what had happened in 1946 and the circumstances behind the moved of the grave to Jeshwang.
“Now with the Centre’s support we are today unveiling a memorial plaque in Arch 22nd to commemorate those who lost their lives in the crash and to create public record of their final resting place,” she disclosed.
Her Excellence Wardle hopefully added that “this will help the future generations that will visit The Gambia to be aware of this piece of UK-Gambia Aviation history and families of those who lost their lives will know that the names of their loved ones have been preserved.”
Tragically, she said, the plane crashed soon after taken off in Banjul “killing all twenty-four passengers and crew on board and all those who lost their lives were buried in European’s Cemetery near Banjul until the decision was taken by the former president to use this location to create Arch 22nd,” while the grave was moved to Jeshwang.
“We thank the NCAC and MoTC for their commitments to preserving the Gambia history and for the respect shown not only for the NCAC but for all Gambians who shown the compassionate at the time of the crash and subsequently and preserving the graves at the Jeshwang cemetery. These really matters to us and to the families of those who lost their lives and we are profoundly grateful to you,” she appreciated.
Prior the unveiling of the plaque, Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of the National Centre for Arts and Culture explained that 9th September, 1946 a British Airways South American Airlines flight en-route from Brazil to Europe crashed at Yundum airfield killed 24 people onboard. “These include British nationals, although no Gambians died.”
He described the incident as the worst air accident in The Gambia history, but the accident points to the pioneering role that “our small country, The Gambia, has played in the development of civil aviation in the world in its infant days of the1930s and 1940s.”
The plaque, he believed, will help to recuperate a hidden aspect of Gambian history, that is, the role the country and airspace in the development of world aviation. “This is why we feel satisfied to work with the British High Commission to memorialize this sad episode of an air accident and also retrace an important aspect of Gambian history, for posterity,” DG Ceesay noted.
Among their partnerships, in the past, NCAC had worked with the High Commission in 2013 to mount an interesting exhibition on the abolition of the slave trade at Fort Bullen and now “we want to invite the High Commission to conserve the Mungo Park’s Memorial Obelisk at Karantaba in Central River Region.”
The Deputy Mayor of Banjul, Honorable Omar BS Touray expressed delight over the unveiled plaque which he described as important history that Banjul City Council is part. He thanked the British High Commission and NCAC while prayed for the departed souls to rest in peace.