Prince Receives Awards from UWI

His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Wales (always known as Prince Harry) was on Tuesday (Mar. 6), conferred with two awards by the University of the West Indies (UWI), on the first full day of activities of his four-day official visit to Jamaica.

In a brief ceremony on the steps of the UWI’s Law Faculty, at the institution’s Mona Campus in St. Andrew, Vice Chancellor, Professor Nigel Harris, conferred an Honorary Fellowship on the Prince, which was awarded with an accompanying inscribed plaque. He was also presented with a specially inscribed silver medallion.

The plaque bears the inscription: “The University of the West Indies hereby confers on His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Wales, the title of Honorary Fellow, on March 6, 2012, to mark the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty, The Queen, and to mark the 50th Anniversary of the University of the West Indies as a full-fledged degree granting institution, granted by Royal Charter”.

The medallion’s inscription reads: “Presented to HRH, Prince Henry of Wales, on the occasion of his visit to the UWI, Mona, Jamaica, March 6, 2012."

In a brief address, Professor Harris said both awards marked a new phase in the “happy relationship” which the UWI has shared with the Royal family, since the institution’s inception 62 years ago. Additionally, that it was to ensure that the Prince’s association with the university “will be a long and happy one”.

In his response, Prince Henry, in noting that his grandmother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, was a Visitor of the UWI, said he felt “doubly proud” to be “extending her heartfelt good wishes” to the institution’s students and faculty members and staff.  

“I’m so honoured, too, that you have bestowed upon me, an Honorary Fellowship, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. Thank you very much for your great kindness, in welcoming me among you so warmly,” Prince Harry said.

Following the conferment, the Prince unveiled a plaque commemorating his visit to the faculty. Prior to the ceremony, Prince Harry toured a section of the law Faculty building, during which he sat in on a moot competition involving students from the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica; Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago; and Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas. He also signed the visitors’ book in the Law Faculty’s lobby.

The visit by Prince Harry, younger grandson of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, forms part of a series of tours to several countries, in commemorative tribute to the 60th Diamond Jubilee Anniversary of her accession to the throne as Queen of England.

By Douglas McIntosh, JIS Reporter