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Presents BUILDERS OF TORTOLA |
Alice Turner Originally from the city of Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, Alice now lives on the hillside in Palestina, not far from Nanny Cay. She has also lived in Havers, on Nanny Cay, and on the waterfront below her current Palestina home. She met her late husband Jim (a Brit), on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii and they lived together in Dorking, Surrey for some time before moving to the BVI. Jim had a number of Massey Ferguson depots selling farm and road building equipment. He decided to take his private company public, and then go into the recreation/leisure industry with the proceeds.
After doing a lot of research and thinking the Turners decided to move to the BVI. They were attracted by the climate and its connection with the (GBP) sterling areas of the world (although the value of this latter factor later disappeared in the changing economic climate). Jim arrived in February 1972 and Alice came in March of that year. Jim decided to start a boatyard and also experimented for six months with the sale of a line of personal watercraft. They bought their property in Havers where they built a house, and the land on the Palestina waterfront where the boatyard was to be constructed Alice and Jim also had their own boat that they kept there. Although some elements of the boatyard were constructed, along with an office and a workshop (that are still there), this project never achieved the success the Turners had hoped for. The personal watercraft didn’t work out either as these relatively early models were more suited to fresh water than the saltwater environment of the BVI, and the designer went bankrupt. Jim also collaborated with the BVI/UK governments in agriculture, helping to give advice and bring in agricultural and road building equipment to the country.
After selling their Havers home they lived for two years on Nanny Cay, before moving to the waterfront property, which they had changed into a residential property, for 20 years. Jim sold the land and after he died Alice moved to her present home.
Alice has been heavily involved in volunteer activities since first arriving on Tortola. She has helped out with a range of causes from prostate clinics to yacht racing, singing groups, and supporting from high school concerts. She has been involved with the Ladies’ Club on Tortola and particularly with the Botanic Society. She remembers many days at the governor’s house when people from (the then smaller) cruise ships were entertained with afternoon teas and tours of Government House, and were shown the botanic delights of Tortola and the BVI. Alice supervised the guides and collected the money, which went to the improvement of the Botanic Gardens. Jim won “Best in Show” for his vegetables and flowers so many times at the Botanic Society Annual Flower Show that they let him keep the trophy.The Turners were also great travelers and Alice still has a motor home in Canada where she spends part of the year. She also travels to the UK where her son and his family live and work. When Jim and Alice first came to Tortola they used to explore, and take visitors around, the island in their ex-army long wheelbase Land Rover which could negotiate the poor roads and tracks that then made up the road system. The only ‘real road’ ran from Beef Island Airport to west end. Alice remembers when Stanley’s was the only operation on the beach at Cane Garden (later there was “Jill’s Beach Bar” as well).
Of course a lot has now changed. There are many more roads, cars, and people. You no longer have to make weekly trips to St. Thomas for hardware supplies and groceries. Many of these changes have helped to improve life in the BVI. But Alice preferred the smaller cruise ships of the past to the giant operations of today, and also feels that it would probably be harder to come to Tortola now as she and Jim did nearly forty years ago. Times have changed and opportunities are different – and the rules and regulations have changed.
Draft of February 21st of interview of January 28th 2010
Builders of Tortola Guide