A Thanksgiving Service was held for the late Arindell Alexander Lewis of Lower South Hill, was held at the St. Mary's Anglican Church on Tuesday evening this week.
The service was conducted by Methodist ministers and Anglican Clergy.

Following is the formal rememberence of Mr. Lewis prepared by his family.

The late Mr. Arindell Lewis

Arrindel Alexander Lewis was born in Anguilla on May 28, 1934. He was the eighth child in a family of 10, and was the last of the three boys in the family. As a small child, he had a near encounter with death when, like many children in Anguilla, he became stricken with a strange illness. In a desperate attempt to save his life, his mother walked with him in her arms from South Hill to the Warden’s Place in the Valley so that he could see a doctor. You see, there were no cars in those days, and as she walked, well-meaning neighbours would come out and ask her, “Johanna, where you going with that dead child in your arms?” But thank goodness she was a woman of faith and love, and because of that, he survived, and went on to raise a family of six: four girls and two boys.
From an early age the child, Arrindel, spoke of joining the ministry. Even though he did not achieve the ultimate goal of formal ministry, he would become a gifted local preacher. He would often share with members of the family how he prayed to God to bless him with a gift to compensate for his poor eyesight. God answered his prayers, and blessed him with the ability to commit his material to memory, thus eliminating the need for him to labour through the reading of a scripted message. Many years later, when, as a young man in his early twenties, he left home to seek his fortune in England, he found himself aboard a large passenger vessel filled with hundreds of migrating West Indians, and he was asked by the ship’s captain to preach the word to the travelers as there was no clergyman aboard. He also had special memories of the time when he was invited to preach by an English minister to his church in London.

During his tenure in England, Arrindel met and married fellow-Anguillian Bernice Woods, who was also in England, pursuing studies in Nursing and Midwifery. During that time he worked for many years at the Mars factory in Slough. He continued to maintain solid ties with home and became a founding member of the Anguilla Improvement Association. He often spoke of the key mediatory role he played in the meetings with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the British Government sought to understand and resolve the conflict in Anguilla arising out of the 1967 Revolution. His interest in Anguilla’s political welfare and future would continue to flourish and, upon his return to Anguilla in the early 1970’s, he became a founding member of the Anguilla United Movement and ran for public office on two occasions: 1976 and 1980. Never one to believe that you should sit and wait until resources become available, but that the best must be made of those that are at hand, he established himself as a pioneer in the field of hospitality and tourism with the establishment of the Inter Island Hotel and the House of Chandeliers. He was recognized for his contribution to Anguilla’s social and economic development in the 2007 Anguilla Day Awards Ceremony.
As we reflect on his life, the overwhelming impression is that Arrindel Lewis was a man of God, a man of family, a man of the people. It is not surprising that one of his favourite quote was this:-
True greatness is found only in humility.
I am among you as One who serves.
If I, then, your Lord and Master become a servant,
You, too, should be servant one to another.
If you know these things and do them, happy will you be.
These words sum up the character of Arrindel Lewis, and are the legacy that he left for all of us: to love God with all that we have and all that we are; to love, cherish and cling to the bonds of family, for that is what makes us strongest, and that is what makes us children of God; and finally to share these two elements of love with others. His words echo back to us from the pages of his Bible: If you know these things and do them, happy you will be. May he find eternal rest in the arms of his Saviour and may his soul rest in perfect peace.

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