Heads of State to Attend Swearing-In of New Governor-General

Heads of State from the Eastern Caribbean are to attend the swearing-in of Dr. Patrick Allen, C.D., as Jamaica’s new Governor-General, on Thursday, February 26.
Governor-General of St. Kitts and Nevis, Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, and the President of Dominica, Dr. Nicholas Liverpool, and Mrs. Liverpool, as well as the President of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor George Maxwell Richards, and
Mrs. Jean Ramjohn-Richards, have been invited to attend the inauguration ceremony, which will take place at King’s House, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
They will join a list of other dignitaries, officials, and guests, headed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who will attend the ceremony.
Dr. Allen, 58, will succeed outgoing Governor-General, His Excellency The Most Honourable Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, ON, GCMG, OJ, who is demitting office due to ill health, after serving for three years.
An educator and devout Christian, Dr. Allen’s appointment is a continuation in the line of educators, who have served as Head of State, dating back to Jamaica’s first native post-independent Governor-General, Sir Clifford Campbell, in 1962. Others holding this distinction are: Sir Florizel Glasspole, who served from 1973 to 1991; Sir Howard Cooke from 1991 to 2006; and Professor Hall from 2006 to 2009.
As the Immediate Past President of the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists (SDA), Dr. Allen’s appointment will also bring to two, the number of individuals from the Adventist denomination, who have served as Governor-General in the Caribbean. The second is Sir James Carlisle, former Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda, who served in that capacity from 1993 to 2007.