August 17 St. George's Grenada: The 25-year-old Grenadian immigrant who
only arrived in London on the eve of the new millennium and
received the UK 's highest award, the
Victoria Cross (VC),will be visiting Grenada on Thursday 18th, August to Monday 22nd. The public is being invited to show their support by giving him a big welcome and lining the route along the
international airport.
At a time of heightening xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria in the United Kingdom
and the European Union, private Johnson Gideon Beharry risked his life on two separate
occasions in incredible acts of bravery under fire near the British-occupied city of Basra
, Iraq last year. Johnson Gideon Beharry was born in St Marks, Grenada on July 27, 1979 , a few months after the Grenada Revolution - a moment of great expectation in his nation. Beharry migrated to the UK
in August 1999 and enlisted in the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment in August 2001 after spending some
time as a construction worker. Private Beharry had a stint in Kosovo and three
months in Northern Ireland, before being deployed to Iraq in April 2004, where, according to his VC citation, "[he] displayed
repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valor, despite intense direct attacks, personal injury and damage to his vehicle
in the face of relentless enemy action."
Yet to recognize the
accomplishment of a fellow Grenadian is not to lose sight of the time-tested maxim that "In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." A medal of recognition for service in British imperial exploits, only a limited
amount of VC medals are cast [1,355] from a stash of prized bronze from captured Russian
guns during the 1854 Crimean war of conquest. VC honoree's theatres of operation
are splattered across the globe - Africa, Russia , Afghanistan , the Americas , South East Asia – mirroring what would subsequently become British colonies. Pte Johnson Beharry is the first living recipient of the cross since 1965 and the first VC since 1982 (a trophy for valor in the Falkland
Island contest).
