JSE’s Tribute to Hon. Alfred Rattray

The Council of the Jamaica Stock Exchange expresses its condolences on the recent passing of the Hon. Alfred Rattray, former civil servant and attorney-at-law who was instrumental in the founding of the JSE. Mr. Rattray, who spearheaded the drafting of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the JSE in 1968, ensured that a number of important principles were incorporated into both the spirit and the letter of the Memorandum and Articles. Last year June, in commemorating its 35th anniversary, the JSE honoured Mr. Rattray for his “dedicated and unswerving support” to the organization’s development. In paying tribute to Mr. Rattray, who is considered one of the grandfathers of the JSE, Executive Chairman, Roy Johnson pointed out that one of the most significant guiding legacies from Mr. Rattray was “the principle that the Exchange would be a private organisation with a national purpose for the protection of the national good.” This he said, was strongly supported and reflected in the decisions and operations of the organization over the past 36 years. Mr. Johnson recalled that from 1964, two years after the formation of the Kingston Stock Market Committee by the Bank of Jamaica, Mr. Rattray assumed an active role in ensuring that there would be equal participation of Jamaican interests in the fledgling Committee as well as in the JSE that would eventually emerge. At the time the Committee, which acted as an Exchange, consisted entirely of foreign-owned interests, including two brokerages doing business in Jamaica. Mr. Johnson said that with the passing of Mr. Rattray, Jamaica has indeed lost one of its finest sons and recalled Mr. Rattray’s passionate support of the role of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, regarding it as “one of the most important institutions ever created in this country”. “His vision will live on and we hail him as a true nation-builder,” Mr. Johnson said.