Dr Erling Harry and his times

by C I Martin

Dr Erling Harry, the distinguished Vincentian cardiologist, died in Chicago at the age of 80. Erling was a first in many respects. He was the first of five brothers. There were also three sisters. He was the first Vincentian to study medicine at UWI, Mona, Jamaica, without having attended a secondary school. He was also the first Vincentian to undergo training at the renowned Mayo Clinic.{{more}}

Chicago is very, very far from Biabou, his home village. Hence, it goes without saying that he had come a long way, both literally and figuratively. To do this required discipline, a capacity for sustained hard work and some luck.

In Erling’s day, St Vincent was not as developed as it is now. Today, we have free secondary schools all over the island, including one in Biabou. Indeed, we even have our own medical colleges. Back then, there were only three secondary schools, all fee paying and located in Kingstown. We did not have the ubiquitous minibus system which facilitates living in the country and attending school in town. For Erling’s father, a foreman/carpenter, and his housewife mother to send their eight children to secondary school in town would therefore have been prohibitively expensive.

Erling’s first bit of luck was to have attended one of the best primary schools in St Vincent at the time – the Biabou Methodist. The school was so good because it had a great headmaster, E W Ballah, who, leather-strap in hand, excelled at drilling the three Rs into his pupils. Many of the students could then become pupil teachers, not only earning money, but furthering their education at the same time.

There are those of us who are rather critical of the planter class as a whole. Some of them have, however, done good work in this place. In Erling’s day, Biabou was bounded on the north by one Hadley estate, Union, and on the south by another, Spring. Unusually for a member of the planter class, C V D Hadley not only went to university, but published articles in learned journals. On his return to St Vincent, he adopted a black son and when one of his fellow whites had the temerity to raise the subject, he simply cuffed him down. C V D became the education officer, which is to say the boss of the education system in our then colonial Civil Service. This was before the introduction of the ministerial system and of course, prior to the establishment of the Teachers’ College. Hadley arranged classes for the pupil teachers. In particular there were the Saturday classes, taught by staff from the secondary schools, where the teachers could prepare for their ‘O’ levels. Erling and his siblings took full advantage of this system.

After obtaining ‘O’ levels, Erling joined the Civil Service as a draughtsman in the Lands and Surveys Department. Visitors to St Vincent often went to the department to purchase maps and Erling would deal with them in his usual unfailingly courteous manner. It was one of these American visitors who would later smooth his way to the Mayo Clinic.

During his time in Kingstown, Erling lodged with the Lockhart family. He may have been related to them, since his mother, Mrs Ruby Harry, and the senior Lockharts all hailed from the Rosehall/Troumaca area. In that household he would have had a lot of intellectual stimulus. Albert Lockhart became a surgeon, Ben Lockhart won the Island Scholarship and ended up as a professor of Virology, whilst sister Karen graduated to become a teacher. As they say, you are known by the company you keep.

In town, Erling, a hard hitting left-handed batsman and spin bowler, played cricket for Eagles Club, along with Lennox John, Roy Austin and others, nearly all of whom, like himself, ended up in North America.

Though a handsome, impeccably dressed young man with a very nice car, I never saw him with a girlfriend. He must have been very discreet. Alternatively, in order to further his career, he postponed that aspect of his life until he got to America.

People often say that they want to give back something to the country where they were born. Erling did not say it, he did it. He obviously believed that the left hand should not know what the right hand did. The few instances that I gleaned will, however, suffice. On a visit to Biabou School, he noted the blackboards were in a terrible shape and proceeded to procure new boards for them. Then, there was Mrs Majorie Jackson, who seemed at one time to have mobility problems. Suddenly she started walking upright again. At last, the penny dropped. She and Erling had worked at Surveys at the same time and he had obviously sent for her and arranged the appropriate medical treatment. In this newspaper it has been mentioned that not once but twice he arranged for the same young lady to come to Chicago for a much needed operation. I am certain that there were many more beneficiaries, including myself.

On his visits to St Vincent we would often shoot the breeze; then one day I said to him I have hypertension and told him the medicine I was taking. In that straight way we had of talking to each other, he said ‘Cims, I would not give that medicine to my dog.’ He recommended another. I took it for some time and it did not seem to be so effective. Later, I mentioned it to another contemporary of ours, Dr F K S Jacobs. In his usual way, Franklyn cut me short and said ‘Erling is a damn good internist and the medicine is appropriate; what dose are you taking?…. Double it’. I did that and for all the years since it has controlled my pressure.

Erling was a mini-philanthropic foundation. We shall remember him.