Flt. Lt. John Hartley Ebanks (centre) shows off his medals to Phil Sinkinson (left), Acting British High Commissioner, while Warrant Officer Evans (right), Assistant to the Defence Adviser at the British High Commission, looks on. The occasion was the presentation of the letter from Buckingham Palace advising Flt. Lt. Ebanks of his appointment to the MBE in the Queen's Golden Jubilee Honours. - Contributed WHEN THE National Honours were handed out on National Heroes Day, Flight Lieutenant John Ebanks was one of the recipients of the Order of Distinction (OD) Officer Class for his contribution to the welfare of Jamaica's ex-servicemen. But this is only the latest recognition of this stalwart's contribution to Jamaica. In June of this year, he was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), in Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee Birthday Honours, for what she described as "his outstanding contribution to the welfare of ex-servicemen in Jamaica." But Flight Lieutenant Ebanks has been looking after the welfare of others since he enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, during World War II.
As a navigator for the Royal Air Force one of the first Jamaicans to achieve this honour Flt. Lt. Ebanks saw active duty by guiding the infamous "Mosquito Night Intruders". These planes and their crews became known as the "Milk Run Boys" with their job being to buzz bomb Berlin and distract the enemy while the "big planes" took care of the larger targets. He earned the Distinguished Flying Medal for his efforts. And after the war, he continued his service in the Royal Air Force, with his last posting being in Malaya, where he earned the General Service Medal (GSM)
Flt. Lt. Ebanks is modest about his honours. "I guess my commitment to giving is really based on selfish pleasure. You see, I get great pleasure from helping others. I prefer to help someone in need rather than do something for myself," he explains.
On returning to Jamaica in 1953, Flt. Lt. Ebanks like all his comrades from the Royal Air Force developed skills as an efficient manager and was quickly snapped up by then shipping giant Sproston's (Jamaica) Limited and offered the post as Shipping Manager. But John Ebanks did not settle into a comfortable civilian life. He was always conscious of his responsibility to others.
"As the son of teachers in rural Jamaica, I learnt to share with others," he says. "My father was a school principal in Arthur's Seat, a district in Clarendon. His name was Eustace James Ebanks and besides being a teacher, he was a Catechist in the Anglican Church. He taught us to give something back to the society," he continues.
So when he settled in the "new" suburb of Mona with his wife Joyce in 1954, his life's work of "giving back to society" began. "My first fund-raising effort was to build a church," he explains. "When I moved to live in Mona, it was still a new community and there was no church there. But a group of us wanted to worship in our community and used to meet under a mango tree", he continued.
When he broached the subject of building a church, other members of the group thought it was too big a task to undertake. But Ebanks persevered. "I felt that it was important for us to make a start. So I began to seek donations and arranged fund-raising events," he recalls. "That effort raised 5,000 pounds to start the church building," he says.
Ebanks' second fund-raising effort was for his alma mater, Beckford & Smith School, St. Catherine. "When I returned (to Jamaica), we formed an Old Students Association to try to improve the school. And our first project was the headmaster's office," he says.
Flt. Lt. Ebanks remembers that the principal's office was in a deplorable condition: hot and musty. Again, he led the effort to raise the funds to buy and install an air conditioning system in the office. He continued to lead fund-raising programmes to improve Beckford & Smith until it merged with another school to become St. Jago High School.
But it was the plight of a fellow ex-serviceman that started what he describes as his "real work." When word came that a World War I veteran had been marooned in his house on a mountaintop in rural Jamaica and was in need of immediate medical attention, Flt. Lt. Ebanks led an expedition to rescue him and take him to hospital. "That made me take a serious look at the conditions under which our war veterans were living," he says.
At that time, the Jamaica 580 Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) had been recently formed with its headquarters in a Nissen Hut at Up Park Camp. He joined the association in 1954, at the behest of the RAFA Assistant Secretary and soon set about raising funds for the organisation. Each month the indefatigable Flt. Lt. Ebanks would conduct Dutch Auctions and fund-raisers and soon had in hand 10,000 pounds sterling which was used to start a building at Curphey Place, which remains the headquarters of the RAFA.
Next on his agenda was the construction of a house in the Cheshire Village for paraplegics and other disabled persons. When, in 1974, Group Captain Cheshire and Dr. John Golding of Mona Rehabilitation Centre decided to establish a housing project for paraplegics and other disabled persons, RAFA Chairman Oliver Marshall gave a commitment that his organisation would donate the 10,000 pounds sterling to build one of the houses. Again, Ebanks went into action and arranged a fund-raiser to identify money for the project. Today, the village has 21 houses and the RAFA continues to cover maintenance costs of the house it sponsored.
Today, his fund-raising prowess is legendary in the RAFA, with his most recent projects being the establishment of the John Ebanks Military Information Centre at Curphey Place and the Columbarium for veterans at Up Park Camp. But Flt. Lt. Ebanks is not willing to accept all the accolades. He attributes his ability to carry out these projects to members of the wide community who continue to support the events. "There are many persons who have always risen to the occasion when I have asked for help and it is oftentimes a chance meeting that ends in generosity," he notes.
Flight Lieutenant John Hartley Ebanks, DFM, GSM, MBE, OD is the embodiment of the motto and rallying cry of the Royal Air Forces Association Non Nobis Sed Vobis - 'Not for Ourselves Alone.'
