Times of the Islands Winter 2020/21

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
INGRID POHL FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH
him with divorce—if he
did not agree to return to
California. Richard reluctantly
agreed that night to
return home. Ernest and
Jill Lawrence also decided
they would return to the
U.S. and Boyce Phillips
told them he would leave
too once he was able.
The Lawrence couple
left for South Caicos on
March 23—one day ahead
of the Irvine family and
Ned Read. Once on South
Caicos, Louise Irvine realized
that in order to pay
for further transportation
home, she had to
sell everything the family
owned, including their
clothes.
Two weeks later, the
Irvine family and Ned Read
boarded a native boat
loaded with conch that
Grace and James Lake stand in front of their tent on East Caicos in March, 1940.
was headed for Nassau.
The trip was miserable—
found on their island home. In addition, members of the the boat smelled and there were no toilets. Louise and
group were already at each other’s throats complaining the girls had to use an umbrella for privacy when nature
that not everyone was doing their share of the work, that called. From Nassau, they took the SS Alleghany to Miami
some were selfish, or they didn’t like Irvine’s authoritarian
manner. Richard, in a letter to his parents, said “I get
arriving April 15, 1940.
blamed for everything.”
The last to leave
Two weeks after the group landed on East Caicos, On August 7, 1940, months after the Irvine family
returned to California, Louise received a note from
morale deteriorated to such a degree that Richard Irvine
was voted out of the East Caicos Trading Company, forcing
the Irvine family to move out of Jacksonville and Grace and James Lake were the only people left on East
Frances Wenstermann, a friend of the Lakes, saying that
relocate at Breezy Point about five miles away. They were Caicos. In all likelihood, Frances received a letter from the
joined by Ned Read, Ernest and Cecilia Lawrence and Lakes with this information. Passenger records showed
bachelor Boyce Phillips.
that Grace returned to Miami in February 1942. James
returned a little more than a year later.
Leaving “Paradise”
A newspaper reported that the last person to leave
By this time, Richard’s wife Louise was so miserable and East Caicos was “repatriated during WW II years partially at
fed up with the entire venture that on March 19 she had government expense.” This was confirmed by Alton Higgs
a knock-down fight with her husband—even threatening during an interview with Richard Irvine’s great-grand-
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