Honoring Heroes: Bishop William Piercy Austin (1807 - 1892)

"Discovering and reclaiming our ancestral heritage; Honoring our ancestors must become to the descendants as natural as breathing." ...M'lilwana Osanku Honoring Heroes: Bishop William Piercy Austin (1807 - 1892); the Most Influential Person in the history of Guyana. Who is the most influential person ever to reside in what is now known as the Cooperative Republic of Guyana? It is my most humble opinion; The Most Honourable, and The Most Reverend Bishop Dr. William Piercy Austin (November 7, 1807 - November 9, 1892)is the best candidate to be recognized as the most outstanding individual in the history of the Colony of British Guiana.

His legacy is found in every phase of life in Guyana . After all, his idea, and diligent work gave rise to the academic pursuits in Guyana . The Bishop established Bishop's College for the Training of Teachers in 1851, in Charlestown , East Bank Demerara. The graduates of the Bishop's College were in the forefront of the charge and the academic excellence for well over seventy years. Daniel Edgar Sharples (1852-1921), and Samuel Augustus Campbell (1852-1931), are noted as two of the most outstanding primary school teachers in the annals of British Guiana . Tappin Johnson Elliott (1856-1938) Joseph Alfred Parkinson (1856-1945), Andrew Benjamin Brown (1857-1939), Tidman Abrahams , Hubert Boston, McLean Ogle, and Samuel Whitney Ogle, others are among the outstanding Schoolmasters of British Guiana who are graduates of the Bishop's College. The Graduates also played vital roles in the establishment of the British Guiana Teachers' Association and the development of political agitation and advocacy among and on the behalf of the working people of British Guiana. http://guygenbiosociety.blogspot.com/2006/09/graduates-of-bishops-college.html The Bishop established Queen's College in 1844. Well every Guyanese ought to be familiar with this prestigious institution's contribution to the development of Guyana . Perhaps, as high as seventy percent of males who occupied positions of consequence in the twentieth century in Guyana and particularly after the second major war of the century are graduates of Queen's College. The Bishop was also an advocate for the improvement of life of the underprivileged working class people of the Colony of British Guiana. These contributions were compliment to his efforts in the moral and religious philosophy of his office. The need is to enlighten our people respecting the real heroes of the past, and not the convoluted expressions of the political entities masquerading as championing the integrity and preservation of our national heritage. If they were the bishop would have been declared and enshrined as a national hero long before Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. Certainly both political parties have displayed their prejudiced mindset and are therefore both undeserving of balance reasoning necessary of protecting and preserving our past with revisionism to make themselves more than what they really are – and that's atrocious.