Rosie [Douglas] and I sat on the same bench at the DGS. He was boarding at Ten Rest Inn owned by Gabriel Leblanc’s aunt, Mrs. Green. He was a very generous guy. He had a lot of respect from his schoolmates. His parents were wealthy by local standards. If his father sent him half a dozen shirts, he would share them. He would give away shirts his father would send him to more needy boys. At that time the principal at the DGS was the St Lucia-born Victor Archer.
Our commandant of the cadet corps was Vivian “Paucus” Grell. Rosie was perhaps a cadet corporal. The cadet program was voluntary, but you became entitled to join in second form. There were those of us who aspired to the leadership the cadet corps gave us. Others did it just for fun. You were drilled like hell, great discipline and we had good leaders. Paucus Grell was a very good leader. Officers had to be a member of faculty; he taught math or English. Grell was commissioned a lieutenant, and nurtured leaders. He was replaced by Cecil Goodridge, an English Literature teacher from Barbados. Cecil Goodridge was one of the most influential leaders of the cadets and shaped my life for the better.
Victor Archer, the Dominica Grammar School (DGS) principal had studied botany and chemistry at McGill and was keen on academics and the cadet program. Archer had a lot of experience from Barbados and recruited a lot of Barbadian teachers. There were Bajans like Elon Brown, Cecil Goodridge, Pigott who taught chemistry, there was Gordon Medford; from Guyana came Leo Austin who taught history, and Bascombe who taught English Literature.
Cecil Goodridge fired Donny Robinson on a parade march one day drilling up King George V Street. He had failed to comply with an order. Robinson was lackadaisical. He shouted, “Sergeant Major Robinson fall out! Company Quarter
Master Sergeant Johnson, take over!” That is how I became the Sergeant Major. Goodridge came back to Dominica after studying in England and came back to serve under me as a Captain. He was humble enough to accept that. Do note that the cadet corps program at the DGS was the pride of Dominica and children and even adults would follow us around the streets of Roseau, whenever we were on parade.
Overseas Education
In the early 1960s, I went to what was known then as the Eastern Caribbean Farm Institute at Centeno, Trinidad. It was like our Botanic Gardens, an agricultural experimental station. It was linked to the old Imperial College of Tropical
Agriculture. I went along with Errol Harris. I earned an honors diploma in agriculture science from there. That was in 1960-1962. I then returned to Trinidad in 1964 to the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. I never graduated
because I created a revolution back there because of rebelling against bullying. I took a pistol and shot up the university, as I was being bullied. I would have none of it. I returned to Dominica and placed myself at the disposal of the British Administrator Geoffrey Collin Guy.
A report was done which concluded that “Mr Johnson was subjected to the most extenuating circumstances and he is to return to the school to complete his studies.” The school was embarrassed and did not want me back. I was booked to go to the Ohio State University. However, a directive came stating that I was not to travel. They were supposed to pay my four years to Ohio State University, but the Caribbean organization responsible for paying my tuition was closing shop. So, I did not go to Ohio State University. So, I entered the civil service.
Reviving the Dominica Defence Force
There was the ex-servicemen club, the Dominica Legion. That was made up of local veterans, as well as resident British veterans from World Wars I and II. The Legion was made up also of ex-servicemen from the local Dominica Defence Force which had gone defunct. I remember speaking to Twistleton Bertrand about rebuilding the Dominica Defence Force after the war. We had nothing for our ex-cadets to do as follow-up from their DGS service. We needed a force to direct our young in the military discipline so important for nation-building. This was serious business, building a local army.
At that time, I had befriended Premier Leblanc and I asked him about resuscitating the Dominica Defence Force. That was about March 1966. We went on talking about it, then around summer of 1967, Leblanc said, “why don’t we start it in time for Discovery Day, November 3, 1967? ” I had already written a proposal for the resuscitation of the Defence Force. I already had mentioned to Leblanc the names, Stafford Lestrade, Claude Bruney and David K. “DK” Burton.
These were local-born ex-British Army guys from the Second World War. These guys were highly respected. Leblanc said “It is a go! Let us do it!”
One weekday a police motorcyclist came to my home with two envelopes marked “On Her Majesty’s Service.” One letter was a commission promoting Earle Johnson to Major. The second letter was making me the new commandant of the [soon] to be formed Dominica Defence Force. I only had three months. That is how the Dominica Defence Force was formed. Prior, we had met in secret, Twistleton Bertrand, Robert Burke, Kenny Alleyne, Nicholas Walron, and me. Except [for] Twist, all the other guys were former cadets at the DGS. Burke was also a volunteer fireman. Oliver N. Philip came around snooping around when he got wind of it. He later became Chief of Police, but then was Head of Special Branch–the secret service in the police service. Once Philip understood that our plan was noble, he supported it.
I was a very strong advocate of doing things by the book. I had a copy of the British Government General Orders. We got our supplies from the British military supplier Hobson’s. However, we made the uniforms locally by Reliance Dress
Shop. We patterned ourselves so we were close in uniform to the police. The dress uniform was white, with green caps for the officers and green berets for the troops. We did all the local training ourselves. Later we had British Army training officers come in.
The Guyana Connection
During Guyana President Forbes Burnham’s visit to Dominica in the early 1970s, I ushered him into his vehicle and rendered him a smart salute. He was paying us a visit in the early 1970s and the National Day parade at the Botanic Gardens had just ended. Burnham was quite astute and fond of all things military. The Premier then was Leblanc and he invited me to Fort Young to meet Burnham. Burnham and I had a nice talk. He told us of his plans for the self-reliant development of Guyana and that dove-tailed with my own ideas for Dominica. Soon after he invited a delegation of young people to visit Guyana. I brought that delegation of young people to visit. The cadets later followed and did camps in Guyana. Later, the Dominica Defence Force trained in jungle warfare with the Guyana Defence Force.
Interestingly Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana, had me send our national delicacy mountain chicken – crapaud (our edible local frogs) to him in Georgetown, Guyana via LIAT airlines. We had to get a special permit to fly those frogs to Guyana.
Major Earle Johnson went on to discuss his role in setting up the Regional Youth Camp:
The Regional Youth Camp at Londonderry came about in 1969. At that stage Leblanc was very gung-ho about the Youth Camp. The then Director of Social Welfare, Henckell “H.L.” Christian wanted to become head of the camp, but
Leblanc chose me. I had already been commandant of the Dominica Defence Force. The Youth Camp was designed to last for two years. The participating regional governments from the Eastern Caribbean British territories were supposed to support the camp and then backed out. But we were so self-sufficient that I was able to persuade the government to keep the camp as we could produce our own food. Mable Moir James was Minister of Social Welfare.
We started our own steel band and cadet corps unit at the camp. We had our own barracks built by the students, and our own farm, kitchen, and mechanic shop. We had our own tractor. The four key areas of study were agriculture science, plumbing, electrical science, masonry and construction. Several other utility buildings were built by the students, such as my living quarters. We did our best to train a new cadre of Dominicans as nation builders. Several of our graduates are still at the task today. I did what I did for Dominica out of love of country, not just duty. It was true love. I have never been one to blow my own horn. And that is why you hear nothing about me in the papers, or on the internet.
Later, I pioneered the first modern fried chicken restaurant in Roseau, Golden Fried Chicken and the Jaws Ice Cream shop. My leadership in the local Dominica Rotary Club, in which I was a pioneer sought to impart the principle of social
responsibility to business owners. All through it, I have been grateful [that] I was able to serve the community not just myself, and nurture young minds. My book, “Retool or Rust” reminds us all to always be constant learners. Learn new skills; always read and keep yourself and your mind sharp. Learn to think and learn to speak properly. My motto, as I forge on in life is:
“The art of success is not to succeed every time but to always have an alternative up your sleeve.”
Skerrit need to bring back the Dominica Defence Force.they cannot be only use to queull civil disturbances.but also drug bust ,natural disasters,help the police in controlling crime,protect the tourists,protect the forest,etc.
Always about self-aggrandisement, huh? Smfh!
Nauseating!
@Putin
Self aggrandizement is at term you know nothing about. Had you known, you would not have used it here. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Did he tell you he run things in Dominica? This is much closer to the term…You must learn to shut up when you have nothing to say.
IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE! Major Earle Johnson cannot be looking this Spritely and young- looking in 2024 as seen in the top photo.
Nevertheless, a wonderful human being. A shinning star of Dominican heritage. An outstanding military officer who walked our soil. An exemplary legacy in his public life and the little that I know of him behind closed doors. Hats’ off to this man.
Gabriel, I have plenty of respect for you; nevertheless, I do not see the reason for your evoking the name of Roosevelt “Rosie” Douglas, I don’t think those of us who knew the man as he was to the day of his demise care!
This thing about how rich his family was is total baloney; a father return from Curacao, worked at an oil refining in an unskilled job, a laborer, bought a bit of land pay 125.00 British Pounds Sterling, for the land which in those days was equivalent to EC$600.00 dollars in that day was not wealth!
We know about the land that someone said was the largest estate on the North, we know about that, it has no boundary!
That piece of land has grown from sea to the Maintains East West North and South.
And I need to asks Johnson if they were so rich, how come when one brother died, his rich family was penniless to bury him!
The same one when Rosie heard he died returned from Libya and proclaim “Micheal told me to take his place.”
Give credit where credit is due!