Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us

… All these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times.

— Ecclesiasticus

Bermuda has always been somewhat remiss when it comes to honouring its own.

Part of this likely owes to a natural reluctance to sound our own praises, an excess of modesty coloured to some degree by a type of cultural inferiority complex.

After all, it’s very easy for the occupants of a small island to come to subconsciously believe the contributions of their fellow men and women — no matter how outstanding or groundbreaking or truly revolutionary — were, in hindsight, perhaps only as modestly scaled as their surroundings.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.

In every generation this Island has produced men and women whose exceptional counsel, learning and guidance have enriched the lives of Bermudians and enhanced not only this community but sometimes the world beyond our shores.

Woven deeply into the tapestry of our history and culture are numerous golden threads of courage and self-sacrifice, of creativity and determination and commitment.

Our Island’s long story is rich with those who personified the fine old credo that a champion in any field of endeavour is one who does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and setbacks and pressures.

Since the introduction of Bermuda’s National Heroes Day six years ago, it’s an event which has routinely gone more honoured in the breach than in the observance.

For successive Governments, it’s tended to be something of a go-through-the-motions affair.

National Heroes Day is a gesture which pays official lip-service to the concept of acknowledging the leading thinkers and doers of Bermuda’s history but stops well short of actually doing so in any meaningful or significant way.

And this lack of enthusiasm at the top has, unfortunately, had a trickle-down effect on the community at large.

June’s public holiday has become just another day off instead of an opportunity to celebrate not only what it takes to be a hero but also what it means to be a Bermudian.

At a time of unprecedented hardship, uncertainty and upheaval, at a time when community bonds actively require strengthening, we need to recognise that that which unites us has always been greater than that which divides us.

So the recent initiative by the Community & Cultural Affairs Department seeking public nominations for new National Heroes — a more full-throated and urgent appeal than past efforts — is to be genuinely welcomed. We certainly don’t lack for worthy candidates.

For instance, one-time slave Pilot Jemmy Darrell’s expert reading of the waves, the tides and the secrets of our labyrinth reefs opened Bermuda up to the Royal Navy and the Island’s long epoch as a strategically vital military outpost.

Educator and theologian Francis Patton, chiefly known on the Island of his birth as the namesake of the Harrington Sound school, rose to become president of Princeton University after leaving Bermuda to pursue a career in academia.

He was mentor to Woodrow Wilson, the man who not only replaced him as president of the eminent New Jersey university but who was twice elected President of the United States.

We recently lost Teddy Tucker, the swashbuckling treasure hunter, marine archaeologist and ocean explorer.

The novelist Peter Benchley, his close friend and protégé, memorably described Mr Tucker as “a walking encyclopedia and one of the great autodidacts in the history of science — a self taught expert on ships, coins, nautical history, underwater archaeology, painting and glassware.”

And he only slightly overstated the case when he once said Teddy Tucker had brought Bermuda to the world and the world to Bermuda.

Still with us, of course, are actor Earl Cameron and footballer Clyde Best, pioneers in their respective fields who became internationally recognised icons for helping to break down the barricades of racism and stereotypes in entertainment and professional sports.

It is simply not possible to separate the two men’s work from what it continues to represent not only to generations of black actors and athletes but to generations of black sports fans and filmgoers, who saw in their accomplishments reflections of themselves.

It’s to be hoped Bermudians take full opportunity of the opportunity being presented to add new names to the pantheon of local worthies.

For the time has long-since passed when we should be diffident about praising those whose lives and deeds have both endured and enlarged the collective Bermudian experience.

Rather, it is actually incumbent upon us to honour them.