Veterans Gala celebrates enduring values of service and integrity

By Christopher Tobutt

Veterans, serving personnel and supporters gathered at the Grand Cayman Marriott Ballroom on Saturday evening for the Cayman Islands Veterans Association’s annual Gala Dinner, an event that celebrated the values of service, integrity and sacrifice while raising funds to support the Islands’ veteran community.

Guests began arriving from 6 p.m., with contingents from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, Cayman Islands Regiment, Cayman Islands Coast Guard, Cadet Corps and other uniformed services joining veterans and members of the public for the black-tie event.

Among those attending were Gloria McField-Nixon, representing Governor Jane Owen, and Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, representing Premier André Ebanks. Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton was also in attendance.

As tradition dictates, the evening marked the launch of the annual Poppy Appeal, with the first poppies of the season being presented to Gloria McField-Nixon and Katherine Ebanks-Wilks.

The proceedings opened with prayer from historian Loxley Banks before Cayman Islands Veterans Association President Andrew McLaughlin and Vice President Shadden McLaughlin welcomed guests to the event.

Shadden McLaughlin thanked supporters for their continuing generosity towards the Association and the veterans it serves.

“We are not able to take care of our ageing veterans without your support,” she said.

As in previous years, the formal dinner was accompanied by the customs and traditions of a military officers’ mess. Good-natured banter and mock fines for breaches of “mess etiquette” drew laughter from around the ballroom, with one tongue-in-cheek complaint noting an apparent shortage of guests who fully understood the meaning of “black tie”.

The keynote address was delivered by Brigadier Clare Phillips CBE, who retired earlier this year after a distinguished 31-year career in the British Army. A member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), Phillips served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and now serves as a trustee of the Army Benevolent Fund.

Introducing the guest speaker, Shadden McLaughlin highlighted Phillips’ long record of leadership and service.

Phillips began by paying tribute to the soldiers she had worked alongside throughout her military career.

“I adore our soldiers. They’re intelligent, smelly, committed, dedicated, they are just brilliant,” she said, prompting laughter and enthusiastic applause from around the room.

Reflecting on her years in uniform, she added, “When I reflect on 31 years, my happiest moments were always spent with soldiers.”

Her address centred on what she described as “the values that define us, the ties that bind us, and the world that needs us”.

Among those defining values, she said, integrity stood foremost.

“Integrity is doing what you know to be right when nobody is looking,” she told guests. “Integrity never has a day off.”

Service personnel and public servants alike, she noted, are entrusted with responsibilities affecting people’s lives, homes, families and livelihoods.

“Integrity cannot be bought. It cannot be ordered,” she said.

Phillips also spoke about determination and resilience, describing the powerful bonds forged through shared hardship.

Whether cold, wet, exhausted or frightened, people who serve learn to depend on one another in difficult circumstances, she said. That shared necessity creates friendships and loyalties unlike any other.

The Brigadier went on to praise the Cayman Islands’ contribution during the Second World War, noting that hundreds of Caymanians volunteered for wartime service, particularly through the Merchant Marine, helping to keep vital supply routes open during the conflict. She praised the Cayman Islands Regiment for carrying that tradition of service forward today.

Concluding her remarks, Phillips argued that veterans continue to have an important role to play long after they leave uniform. In a world that often seems to move from one crisis to the next, she said, veterans remain a stabilising force, bringing experience, resilience and a determination to get the job done.

The evening concluded with one of the military’s most enduring traditions as guests rose to their feet and raised their glasses in a toast to “Absent Friends”.

For a few moments, the ballroom fell silent in remembrance of those who had served before them and those who did not return, a fitting close to an evening dedicated to honouring both the legacy of past service and the continuing welfare of today’s veterans.