Sir John Golding
Sir John Simon Rawson Golding dedicated his professional career to promoting the welfare of the disabled. He regarded the underprivileged and needy as his constituency. His relentless energy and enthusiasm for his work has benefited thousands of Jamaicans spanning a period of over forty years.
John Golding arrived in Jamaica in 1953 to open the orthopaedic department at the university hospital and to study the natural history of the conditions affecting orthopaedic patients in the caribbean. He established the Mona Rehabilitation Centre after the outbreak of poliomyelitis of 1954 struck the country. He remained medical officer in charge of the centre until his death.
In 1958 he became professor of tropical orthopaedic surgery, rehabilitation and trauma. In 1987, he was made professor emeritus of the University of the West Indies and retired from the university hospital though he continued to teach surgery, do clinics and undertake some operations until his death.
Achievements
- ABC orthopaedic travelling fellowship
- Hunterian lecturer in orthopedics, Royal College of Surgeons, 1956
- Order of the British Empire (OBE), 1959
- Commander of the Order of Distinction
- Order of Jamaica, 1980
- The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor, 1986
- Doctor of laws, University of Toronto, Canada, 1984
- Gold Musgrave Medal, 1995
- Co-founder of the Mona Rehabilitation Centre, 1954
- Co-founder, Hope Valley Experimental School, 1974
- Co-founder, Monex Limited, employing the disabled in wood handicrafts
- Co-founder of United Way Pain Centre Hospice, Laws Street
- Co-founder, Telethon Work Centre
- Co-founder of Coconut Park Amusement Park
- Co-founder and vice-chairman of the Golden Age Home
- Chairman of Road Safety Council
- President of the Jamaican Orthopaedic Association
- Founder of Association of General Surgeons
- Chairman of commonwealth caribbean medical research council
- Co-founder of the Cheshire Village, Jamaica
- Author of numerous medical publications
- Author of Ascent To Mona: A History Of Jamaican Medical Care
- Chairman of the School of Physiotheraphy, UWI
- Board member of Mustard Seed
- Board member of Foundation for International Self Help, Jamaica
- Justice of the Peace
- Professor emiritus, University of the West Indies
- Robert Jones Medal of British Orthopaedics Association
- Polio technical committee
- Polio Foundation Trust
- Jamaica Paraplegic Association
- Jamaica Sports and Social Club
Samuel C. Henriques
Samuel “Sammy” Henriques, co-founder of the Mona Rehabilitation Centre, was a fundraiser par excellence and generous benefactor.
Sammy was a successful businessman from one of Jamaica’s leading commercial families. His personality and solid private sector contacts sourced the required funds to initially build the Centre in 1954 and later to maintain the wards and facilities until his death in 1986. His ability to motivate and mobilise the public over a thirty-year period to generously respond to the needs of the physically disabled place him dearly in their hearts.
The Henriques Wing at the Centre is named after Sammy and his family.