Bonti Liverpool – The last of the old breed

Bonti Liverpool has now been in the service of the Dominica Scout movement for fifty years. The past Chief Scout Commissioner who in the words of one time National Scout Council President, Anthony Commodore “in 2007, single-handedly rejuvenated the national scout movement from the doldrums it was in,” resigned from the top position in 2012, but is still actively scouting.

Bonti was invested into the then 8th Dominica Scout Troop in August of 1967. He remembers his first Scoutmaster as Roy E. Tonge, and the investiture ceremony being led by Scout leader, Arthur “Andy” Andrew at the Roman Catholic Church in Grand Bay. He became Patrol Leader of Bull Patrol, taking over from the legendary Timothy “Bull” Noel.

Bonti Liverpool is one of those scouts who was trained by Bernard B. Williams and Eardley Rodgers James. (He rose to become William’s deputy, when Williams was appointed leader of the Dominican contingent to the 9th Caribbean Jamboree in 1987.) He attended his first General Information Course and Basic Practical Course under the tough-as-nails National Leader Trainer B.B. Williams at Scout Headquarters in High Street in 1969 and his first Patrol Leader Training Camp at Zion Hill in Marigot under Chief Commissioner Eardley James that same year.

He attended his first jamboree held at Oxnards, St. James, Barbados in 1972 as a Junior Scout Leader in the seventy-three strong contingent that represented Dominica scouting at that event. Eardley James led that contingent with D. V. Fontaine as his deputy.
He did his first Advanced Practical Course towards his Wood Badge in 1977 under Travelling UK Commissioner George Witchell at Londonderry, Dominica, and a second at Balata in St. Lucia under Brian Chick in 1981.

Liverpool was the Group Scoutmaster of the 8th Dominica for a number of years before he was appointed as Assistant District Commissioner and then as District Commissioner, South.

In 1988, a turn of events thrust him into leadership at the national level when he was selected to replace B.B. Williams as Camp Chief of the 5th Caribbean Cuboree. The force of will and hard driving leadership that Liverpool brought to the Cuboree effort turned an embattled situation into a highly successful event.

He served with distinction on two extended occasions as Honorary Secretary of the Association and created the position of Executive Commissioner to bridge the gap between policy conceptualization and policy implementation.

Liverpool attended his first Chief Commissioner’s conference as aide-de-camp to then Chief Commissioner Hubert N. Joseph in Trinidad in 1989. He then attended the Chief Commissioner’s conference at the Ponsietta Hotel in Goodwill, Dominica alongside the then Chief Commissioner Edward C. Henderson.

In 1994 he served as a Sub-camp Chief at the 10th Caribbean Jamboree at Compton Point and as Camp Chief of the OECS Invitational Camp at Londonderry that same year.

In 2003, with the Dominican Scout Movement a thousand strong, then Executive Commissioner Liverpool took a four year sabbatical to rid himself of a drug and alcohol problem. He came back in July of 2007 to a decimated movement that could only muster two troops with less than a hundred boys. He immediately set about reviving dying troops and establishing new ones.

That same July he was appointed Deputy Chief Commissioner, and in a whirlwind of activities, and ably supported by the then National Scout Council President Mr. Anthony Commodore, Liverpool spearheaded the formation and rejuvenation of some twelve scout troops around the island.

In 2008, while Liverpool was still Deputy Chief Scout Commissioner, National Scout Council President, Anthony Commodore personally financed his attending the Chief Commissioners’ Conference in Aruba. It was at this conference that Liverpool presented the case of the Dominica Scout Movement’s need of assistance to rebuild and sustain itself, and there the beginnings of the Messengers of Peace programme appeared.

In 2010, then Chief Scout, President N.J.O. Liverpool appointed Liverpool as Chief Scout Commissioner. Liverpool attended the Caribbean Chief Commissioners’ conference in Trinidad in 2011 and secured Dominica’s hosting the 1917 Caribbean Jamboree. 2013 saw him attending the Chief Commissioners’ Conference in Suriname and was in Panama in 2014 successfully defending Dominica’s bid to host the 2017 Caribbean Jamboree.

In the same 2014, Liverpool led the teams that organized the groundwork for two regional scout training courses held in Dominica: Adult Leadership Training Level 1 at Rosalie and the Advanced Practical Course at Grand Bay. As recently as April of 2016, he attended a Training the Trainers Course in Arima, Trinidad.

Liverpool’s fifty-year involvement in Dominica scouting, has been one of active duty. His contribution has been enormous. To parents and boys alike he is affectionately known as “Chief.” He has served in many key positions in the Association over the years and his flashing smile and sometimes effervescent personality belie the steely determination and strength of will that runs through the veteran scouter.

By any standards, Liverpool has served the Dominica scout movement well, and will go down as one of the most transformative and visionary of Chief Scout Commissioners. He is the last of the old breed in the line of Eardley James, Karl Hector and B.B. Williams. Of all scouts, Liverpool lived the scout Promise, Law and Motto that he pledged to as a boy; that held him together as a man; instilled hope in him when he was a vagrant, and gave him an ideal to strive towards when he was driven down in deep depression. Of all scouts in Dominica scouting today, Liverpool is the last of the old breed.

Edward C. Henderson is past Chief Scout Commissioner.