By Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Monday 13th November 2023) – 82-year-old Stanley Franks Jr. MBE,MH,JP was laid to rest at the Springfield Cemetery in Basseterre following a funeral service -featuring a host of glowing tributesheld at the Wesley Methodist Church in Basseterre on Monday 8th November 2023.
“If anyone was born in the bosom of Labour, it was Stanley. As a child, he was there in the front seat of the struggle to establish the rights and dignity of the masses. There is a picture of the first Labour Day March through the streets of Basseterre with the then leaders of the Party, including Sir Robert Bradshaw, Sir C A Paul Southwell, Sir Joseph Nathaniel France and Thomas Manchester leading the march, and there is Stanley, a precocious child of seven or eight, right at the front of the march with them.
Even at that age, Stanley had to be in everything.” This was what his brother Sam Franks said while delivering the eulogy (formal remembrance) during the service. According to him: “Our Grandfather, Poppa, was a cooper” a master craftsman who made and repaired wooden barrels, buckets and casks, then used to store and ship muscovado sugar as well as rum, wine, pickled meats etc.
This was before the advent of plastics so he did a respectable trade among the residents of Prickly Pear Alley and its environs, making and repairing leak-proof buckets, tubs etc. out of wood and without glue. Poppa’s skills and attention to details were neither lost on our father nor to Stanley, both of whom established themselves in their chosen profession as master craftsmen.
Poppa was also involved in easing the plight of Kittitians at that time, the drudgery of life and the conditions of work. In fact, Poppa was one of the twelve persons who gave birth to the St. Kitts Nevis & Anguilla Workers League, later the St.
Kitts Nevis Trades & Labour Union which spawned the Labour Party. The motto that was adopted and espoused by the Workers League and remains even today is: “For the good that we can do . “Few have championed this anthem that our Grandfather helped to coin, as Stanley has done,” he added.
In sharing details abo t Stanle ’s earl highlighted: “Stanley Reginald Franks, he loved to be called Stanley Franks Jnr., was born to Wentworth Stanley Franks and Mazie
