Derek Achong

Sher­man May­nard, the 27-year-old po­lice con­sta­ble, who was killed in the line of du­ty dur­ing the prison break at the Port-of-Spain State Prison last month, is one of five per­sons who will re­ceive the Hum­ming Bird Medal (Bronze) at tonight's In­de­pen­dence Day award cer­e­mo­ny.May­nard's fam­i­ly is ex­pect­ed to col­lect the posthu­mous award on his be­half a lit­tle over a month af­ter he was shot dead by three pris­on­ers dur­ing their mid­day es­cape from the Fred­er­ick Street prison on Ju­ly 24.

May­nard was fa­tal­ly shot as he con­front­ed Al­lan "Scan­ny" Mar­tin, Christo­pher "Mon­ster" Sel­by and Has­san Atwell. Mar­tin was even­tu­al­ly killed by May­nard's col­leagues, while Atwell was found mur­dered in East Dry Riv­er two days lat­er. Sel­by even­tu­al­ly sur­ren­dered.The late po­lice of­fi­cer is one of three mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices to re­ceive the award for gal­lantry this year. The oth­er awardees are Pri­vate Fer­nan­do Smith and Sub-Lieu­tenant Edric Har­g­reaves.

Smith, a mem­ber of the T&T Reg­i­ment, was in­stru­men­tal in the res­cue of his col­league Pri­vate An­drew Git­tens who was wound­ed in a shootout with gun­men in Laven­tille in De­cem­ber last year. They were on pa­trol in the Clifton Hill area when they were caught in the shootout. Git­tens was wound­ed in the ex­change and Smith risked his life to pull him out of the line of fire and to a safe lo­ca­tion from where he was safe­ly trans­port­ed to hos­pi­tal for treat­ment.

Har­g­reaves, a div­er with the T&T Coast Guard, earned his award af­ter com­plet­ing a one-man res­cue mis­sion for a fam­i­ly of sev­en who were on board a sink­ing ship in Ch­aguara­mas in Ju­ly last year. He had just fin­ished his shift at the Coast Guard's Staubles Bay head­quar­ters when he no­ticed the ves­sel sink­ing off King's Bay in Ch­aguara­mas.

Af­ter con­tact­ing his col­leagues for as­sis­tance, Har­g­reaves swam out to the dis­tressed fam­i­ly mem­bers, who were wear­ing life-jack­ets, and as­sist­ed them in get­ting to shore safe­ly. He man­aged to com­plete the task be­fore his col­leagues ar­rived on the scene in their high speed in­ter­cep­tor ves­sels.

The rel­a­tives res­cued were lat­er iden­ti­fied as six-year-old Aaliyah Sankar Singh; Ke­ston Sankar Singh, 13; Tris­tan Sankar Singh, 15; Se­bas­t­ian Sankar Singh, 13; One­sha Grant, 21; Cheryl Sankar Singh, 43; and Al­lan Sankar Singh, 40.Smith and Har­g­reaves will re­ceive their awards along­side four-year-old Kal-El Al­leyne, of San­ta Cruz, who is like­ly to be the youngest ever re­cip­i­ent of a na­tion­al award when he col­lect his medal this evening.

Al­leyne shot in­to the lime­light al­most two weeks ago af­ter play­ing a vi­tal role in the res­cue of his moth­er and aunt af­ter the fam­i­ly's car tum­bled off a 300 foot precipice along the North Coast Road in Mara­cas.With both adults trapped in the wreck­age, the pre-school­er, who was in­jured, man­aged to get out of the wreck­age and scale the steep precipice to get help for his rel­a­tive.

In­de­pen­dence awards for 33 cit­i­zens

Two min­is­ters in the cur­rent Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion head the list of re­cip­i­ents of Na­tion­al Awards this year. For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an and Labour Min­is­ter Er­rol McLeod are among 33 cit­i­zens who will be ho­n­oured at a cer­e­mo­ny at Queen's Hall this evening.

The full list is as fol­lows:

THE OR­DER OF THE RE­PUB­LIC OF TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO

1. Mr. Win­ston Chan­darb­han Dook­er­an–Econ­o­mist– Eco­nom­ics

2. Mr. Er­rol Kelvin McLeod–Min­is­ter of Labour/For­mer Trade Union­ist–Trade Union­ism

THE CHA­CO­NIA MEDAL (GOLD)

1. Mrs. Daphne Bartlett–Busi­ness­woman - Busi­ness

2. Mr. Sel­by Wil­son–Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Strate­gist/for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance–Na­tion­al Ser­vice

3. Mr. Reynold Coop­er–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary/Head of the Pub­lic Ser­vice–Pub­lic Ser­vice

4. Mr. Vic­tor Em­manuel Mout­tet–Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor - Busi­ness

THE CHA­CO­NIA MEDAL (SIL­VER)

1. Dr. Vin­cent David Lasse–Chair­man, PTSC– Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice

THE HUM­MING BIRD MEDAL (GOLD)

1. Dil-E-Nadan - Or­ches­tra–Cul­ture

2. Bro. Har­ryper­sad Ma­haraj– Pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion (IRO)–Re­li­gion

3. Mr. No­ble Salahudin Ahamad Khan–For­mer IRO Pres­i­dent–Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice

4. Mr. Dwayne John Bra­vo–Crick­eter–Sport

5. Mr. Kar­ran Nan­coo–Jus­tice of the Peace– Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice

6. Pro­fes­sor Dilip Dan–Med­ical Prac­ti­tion­er–Med­i­cine

HUM­MING BIRD MEDAL (SIL­VER)

1. Mr. Fred "Com­pos­er" Mitchell–Ca­lyp­son­ian–Cul­ture

2. Mr. Vic­tor Hart–Re­tired Char­tered Quan­ti­ty Sur­vey­or–Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice

3. Mr. Kel­wyn Nor­man Hutcheon–Re­tired Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Man­ag­er–Cul­ture

4. Mr. An­drew "Lord Su­pe­ri­or" Mar­cano–Ca­lyp­son­ian–Cul­ture

5. Pro­fes­sor Christo­pher Fran­cis–Pro­fes­sor in Mar­tial Arts–Cul­ture

6. Mr. An­tho­ny "All Rounder" Hen­drick­son–Ca­lyp­son­ian–Cul­ture

7. Mrs. Shar­lene Flo­res–Parang Singer–Cul­ture and Mu­sic

HUM­MING BIRD MEDAL (BRONZE)

1. Mr. Ja­son Vin­cent–Banker–Sport

2. Mas­ter Kal-El Joel Maxwell Al­leyne–Pre-School­er–Brav­ery/Gal­lantry

3. Pri­vate Fer­nan­do Smith–Sol­dier–Brav­ery/Gal­lantry

4. Sub Lieu­tenant Edric Har­g­reaves–Mil­i­tary Of­fi­cer–Brav­ery/Gal­lantry

5. Po­lice Con­sta­ble Sher­man Gabriel May­nard (Posthu­mous)–Po­lice Of­fi­cer–Brav­ery/Gal­lantry

PUB­LIC SER­VICE MEDAL OF MER­IT (GOLD)

1. Mrs. Ma­jorie Wood­ing (Posthu­mous)–Ed­u­ca­tor–Ed­u­ca­tion

2. Mrs. Pearl Tele­maque–Ed­u­ca­tor–Ed­u­ca­tion

3. Ms. Sheilah Solomon (Posthu­mous)–UN­ESCO Am­bas­sador–Na­tion­al Ser­vice

4. Dr. Jef­fer­son David­son–Re­tired Pub­lic Ser­vant–Pub­lic Ser­vice

5. Ms. Al­i­son Lewis–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

6. Ms. Chris­tine Mary Sookram–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

7. Dr. El­lis Bur­ris–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

8. Mrs. Glo­ria Ed­wards-Joseph–Re­tired Di­rec­tor Per­son­nel Ad­min­is­tra­tion–Pub­lic Ser­vice

9. Ms. Mar­garet Far­ray–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

10. Ms. Ma­g­a­ret Par­il­lon–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

11. Ms. Myr­na Thomp­son–Re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary–Pub­lic Ser­vice

PUB­LIC SER­VICE MEDAL OF MER­IT (SIL­VER)

1. Dr. Vic­tor Clement Ques­nel (Posthu­mous)–Re­tired Plant Bi­ol­o­gist–Re­search

MEDAL FOR THE DE­VEL­OP­MENT OF WOMEN (GOLD)

1. Dr. Sherene Kalloo–Ob­ste­tri­cian/Gy­nae­col­o­gist – Med­i­cine

2. The Rape Cri­sis So­ci­ety–Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Or­gan­i­sa­tion–Na­tion­al Ser­vice

Or­gan­i­sa­tion

3. Mrs. Cather­ine Ruk­mi­ni Ku­mar–CEO, T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce–Busi­ness

4. Mrs. Pearl Gopaul–Ed­u­ca­tor/Ther­a­pist–Health Care

5. Ms. Gillian Nicole Wall–Co–founder/ Mem­ber of the Pow­er­ful Ladies of Trinidad and To­ba­go (PLOTT)– Women's Af­fairs