Before T&T’s first Olympic medalist Rodney Wilkes died, he wanted his medals to be displayed at San Fernando’s City Hall so that future generations could learn of his feats.
But with bids on his Helsinki 1952 bronze medal for weightlifting closed off on eBay yesterday it is uncertain whether Wilkes’ wish will ever come true. Up to yesterday afternoon, there were 11 bids over the US$30,500 asking price. Last week, Wilkes’ daughter Grace Wilkes-Worsley told the T&T Guardian that her father wanted the medals returned and her brother tried three times to have them returned by late historian Louis B Homer.
However, it was never done and she said the auction has caused great distress to her family. Former local government minister Marlene Coudray has described the silence from officials of the San Fernando City Corporation on the issue as appalling since Wilkes had first given them the medal so it could be used in a historic exhibition during City Day celebrations in 2011.
Coudray, who is also a former San Fernando Mayor, said the bronze and silver medals which Wilkes won in the 1948 Olympics in London, were loaned to Homer for display in a museum at his home in San Fernando during a visit by a delegation from Martinique.
“Mr Wilkes told me he wanted to keep his medals on display because I had done a cabinet in the lobby with a lot of stuff in it. Mr Wilkes told me that having it at home served no purpose and he did not have a problem with the city keeping it because, ironically, he knew it would be safe and the people of San Fernando and others would be able to come into City Hall and look at them,” Coudray said.
She explained that because San Fernando is twinned with the town of Trinite in Martinique, a group called Friends of San Fernando had invited a delegation to view the display. However, the medals and several other artefacts from City Hall were never returned by Homer and after he died in August 2013, no one knew what became of the collection. [. . .]
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