The visit of then Prince Charles dominated the 19 July 1973 edition of the Cayman Compass. The main story told of how the prince ‘charmed’ Caymanians during an event on the HMS Minerva on which he was serving as deputy missile gunnery officer. There were also features on the various events celebrating his brief time on the island, along with two pages of photos of the future king touring Grand Cayman.
The Compass lauded the prince in an editorial, ‘What About A Royal Visit?’, noting that he had “a natural charm and shows a genuine interest in people as individuals”. With the “overwhelming enthusiasm shown by Caymanians” during his visit, the editorial said that the authorities would take notice, “so that the people of the Cayman Islands can, in the not too distant future, be assured of an official royal visit which they so truly deserve”. Ten years later, Queen Elizabeth arrived on her first official visit here in February 1983.
Following on from a picture of an impressively large watermelon that made the paper the week before, two children were photographed with a good-sized pumpkin, headlined, ‘They said it wouldn’t grow’. Darlene Wright, 7, was told by everyone “she couldn’t grow a garden by just throwing pumpkin seeds out in the back yard”. However, months later, she was showing off her homegrown squash, with 11-year-old Danny Anderson helping her hold it up.
With all the development that has occurred in Cayman over the last 50 years, it is interesting to see the story, ‘Old Caymanian Architecture To Be Preserved’. Peter Isbell, a young English architect, was launching a project to preserve some of the smaller but historically valuable houses. According to the article, he felt it would be tragic to see the Caymanian-style houses demolished. One wonders how many of those homes have disappeared since then.
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