Hidden Secret: Why Rusea’s School was relocated from Lucea town centre, to the soldier barracks at Fort Charlotte in the 1920s

By Claudia Gardner:

Many Hanoverians and non-Hanoverians alike, erroneously believe that the buildings at Fort Charlotte are the original Rusea’s School, founded by Martin Rusea in 1777.

However the late Supreme Court Judge Arthur Dickson, who was born and bred in Lucea, explained in his memoirs, how what is now Rusea’s High School Campus II, came to be relocated to the abandoned “Long Barracks” at Fort Charlotte military base, which had been occupied by soldiers of the West India Regiment for centuries.

The school, he noted, was originally located in what is now Bustamante Square, on a piece of land which now houses the Lucea Methodist Church.

“By the Court House (now Hanover Municipal Corporation) near Bob Stone Corner, the Methodist Church where I used to attend looks the same but it was not always there,” he noted.

“On that site had been a two storey building which had the Fire Station below and Rusea’s School above.   But a hurricane damaged the old Methodist Church which was back down the main street, just after Dickson Bridge towards Big Well.  So, a new Fire Station was built behind the Court House… Rusea’s School was moved to the Barracks and a new church was built by subscription and donations from the congregation,” he explained.

Dickson in telling the story of early 20^th century Lucea, described the  Long Barracks as a “lovely old building, with polished mahogany floors, which had at one time been the barracks for soldiers at the fort”.

He noted as well, when he visited Lucea in the 2000s, that the outside of the building has not changed much since he was a boy.

He said that the small building on the left hand side, at the front of the school, which now houses the school’s museum, used to “be a house for the Junior School master”, and the large building next to the schoolhouse was where the Inspector of Police lived.

The late judge, who was called to the Bar in 1939, gave a vivid description of how the property had been repurposed to facilitate students of the school, which had been founded by Martin Rusea, who, legend has it, was a French refugee who bequeathed the school to the people of Lucea who helped him when he was shipwrecked after fleeing religious persecution in France. 

Martin Rusea, historians say, based on their research at the Archives, was in fact a plantation owner from Lucea, (but that’s for another story at another time). 

So, back to Dickson’s account.   

Based on the musings of the eminent judge who retired at age 73, Rusea’s, which nowadays is noted for its legendary football prowess at the DaCosta Cup and the Olivier Shield competitions, was a big tennis-playing institution during his days there. 

In fact, Dickson pointed out, between the junior headmaster’s house and the main building “were tennis courts” and “on the left hand side, towards the infirmary, there were more tennis courts”.

“On the green across the road, at the front of the school, we had a cricket pitch. The ground was also used for football and around the outside was marked a running track for athletics… The field was sometimes used for garden parties and the athletics track was also used for cycle racing,” he noted, in outlining the other sporting and entertainment activities.

Dickson who served the British Colonial and Commonwealth Offices in Barbados, Guyana and Nigeria as a Magistrate and High Court judge, said Rusea’s School’s students at the time were no stranger to corporal punishment, as the headmaster “Mr. McDonald, a laconic Scotsman with a very dry sense of humour”, would administer “serious punishment at school”, with the cane being his implement of choice.

In fact, he said that on one occasion, after a beating by McDonald, he could not walk and “had to be pushed home on a bicycle” by his older brother, Willie.

In another story, Dickson recounted how one Rusean boy who McDonald told to ‘fetch the switch’ from the cupboard where it was kept in storage, outside the classroom, used a knife to cut it so that it  slit when he was being caned.

Another boy bearing the name Lester Smith, he said, at his first time getting a beating, told McDonald: “Mi gwine dead if you beat mi sir, mi gwine dead”.

“Mr. McDonald said nothing for a moment and then replied: ‘Well dead then Boy, dead then!’” Dickson recounted.

Much respect is due to Arthur Dickson for leaving for posterity, a piece of history of Lucea in the early 1900s. 

Dickson went on from Rusea’s school in Lucea, to Cornwall College in  Montego Bay and then left the island to study Law at Lincoln’s Inn, London.

According to his biography, he also practised as a Barrister out of Kingston and in Montego Bay and Falmouth during the war (World War II).   This included what is described as a “memorable murder trial” which was his first, for which all the court personnel flew to Hispaniola by “flying boat”.

Dickson and his team later crossed the island by road and made the final leg of the journey to the Turks & Caicos Islands, where the murder had taken place, by sailing schooner.

Dickson was appointed to Jamaica’s Supreme Court between 1962 and 1964.  He also served as a High Court judge in East Africa, a judge in Anguilla and he ended his overseas career as Chief Justice of Belize with a subsequent commission to re-codify the Laws.

The Hanoverian was also appointed Queens Counsel and awarded the CBE for his services.  For several years, he chaired Employment Tribunals in England before retiring at age of 73.

He spent his retirement in England, near his children and grandchildren until his death in 2011 at age 98.