GG's Achievement Award - St. Catherine - Hubert Bartholomew: By determination he realised his dream

By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

Bartholomew

THE GUESTS had started cheering him even before he rose to approach the podium to accept his award from the Governor-General. He seemed unaffected by the applause, probably the result of the discipline he had developed on his way to the top.

If you've ever tried to get something done and quit after only a few minutes of trying, you'll be embarrassed by Hubert Bartholomew's story.

For more than 40 years, the St. Catherine recipient of The Governor-General's Achievement Award for 2001, toiled in a virtual wasteland of opportunity to realise his dream of becoming an attorney-at-law. A dream, he says, was inspired by a movie he saw at age four about a barrister-at-law called Bartholomew.

As young as he was at the time, he forged a connection and made his decision. "He was Bartholomew and I was also Bartholomew, I wanted to be just like the barrister," said Hubert, now 75. And as he grew, his dreams expanded beyond his childhood imaginations.

"I used to boast myself of being a Norman Manley. I used to boast that he was my mentor at the time and I grew up with that sort of ambition. I wanted to be a Norman Manley and in all my boyhood days when all the other youngsters were playing football, cricket and what have you, all my games were usually police-and-prisoner. Yes, most of my games were police-and-prisoner in the backyard and I was usually the judge or the lawyer," he said.

Mr. Bartholomew, now a retired Resident Magistrate, attended elementary school and was doing well when he had to drop out of school to find work to help support his family which included eight of his siblings.

"It was an obligation; it was a question of do or die; it wasn't a question of whether your'e going to feel sorrowful because you had to stop going to school. It was something that had to happen because the need was there," he explained. So he worked.

Apprentice mechanic

In 1939, the teenage Hubert became an apprentice mechanic. He soon moved on to tailoring and later mastered masonry. Between 1944 and 1946 Hubert Bartholomew worked as a farmhand in the United States. His performance on the job soon landed him the title of "group leader" on the farm. He later returned to Jamaica where he worked as a tyre repairman and a relief chauffeur on the Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate.

Hubert Bartholomew emigrated to London in 1952 and worked as a bricklayer for four years, but because he suffered from dermatitis of the hands from contact with cement and white lime, he had to find another occupation. In 1962, not having a school-leaving certificate, he managed to convince the Principal of the Catford College of Commerce of his capability and was admitted to the college.

It was here that Mr. Bartholomew saw the golden opportunity to become a barrister-at-law, present itself to him. "The thing about it is that for as long as I have lived in Jamaica that seemed to be a remote possibility but when I went to England in 1952 and realised that secondary education was something that was within the grasp, I then began to apply myself. I realised that in order to gain sufficient recognition for a university qualification a lot of things were needed," said Mr. Bartholomew.

Menial jobs

In 1963 he matriculated with the requirements to study at the University of London. With the assistance of a small grant from the Inner London Education Authority and the proceeds from several menial jobs, he went on to graduate in 1966 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws and became a barrister-at-law in 1973.

In 1974, Mr. Bartholomew got a job as an Assistant Legal Attaché at the Jamaican High Commission, London. Returning to Jamaica and working with dedication, he quickly moved up the ladder from Legal Officer to Crown Counsel, to an Assistant Attorney-General and finally Resident Magistrate. He retired in 1986, and set up his law firm, H.G. Bartholomew & Company, Spanish Town, St. Catherine.

Mr. Bartholomew's voluntary contribution to his community has been significant. A philanthropist, he contributes to a long list of organisations. He is a member of several civic and community organisations including being chairman of the South-East Region Health Authority. He is a Methodist and a past-master of his lodge.

Mr. Bartholomew has been married to Beulah for the last 30 years and they have two adopted children.

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