British MP pays homage to William Knibb

Phillip Hollobone, the member of Parliament for Kettering, England, visited the William Knibb Baptist Church in Falmouth, Trelawny, on Sunday to pay homage to the 19th-century missionary and abolitionist.

The MP was part of a group of British parliamentarians visiting Jamaica. He ventured out on his own, from Kingston to Falmouth, in a bid to establish links with the church.

FOUGHT FOR ABOLITION

William Knibb, who was from Kettering, was an educator who taught enslaved Africans to read and encouraged them to become Christians. He later fought for the abolition of slavery in Jamaica, which was achieved in 1838.

"William Knibb is a hero in the borough of Kettering. He is our most famous son. You cannot live in Kettering and not know about him," Hollobone told WESTERN STAR.

"Without William Knibb slavery might not have been abolished at the time it. We, like you here at the church have his memory as part of our daily lives. You have a monument in his memory. We have a coat of arms which has on one side a freed Jamaican slave," he said.

Usain Bolt's alma mater, William Knibb Memorial High, was named in his honour.