\u201cSurprised and saddened!\u201d These were the words Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen used on hearing of the passing of Logistics and Protocol Consultant, Col (Hon) Merrick Needham, CD, MVO, earlier today. Highly respected and knowledgeable on matters of Protocol, Col Needham had a very close relationship with King\u2019s House and provided invaluable advice to successive Governors-General. He was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) for his Protocol contribution over many years to the Office of The Governor-General and the Government of Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Col Needham, who was a Member of the Royal Victorian Order, also received The Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2018, for his contribution to all six of Queen Elizabeth\u2019s visits to Jamaica. He received the Order of Distinction (Officer Class) for outstanding logistical coordination and
\norganization of the relief effort following the Flora flood rains in 1976. His expert advice was relied on by local and regional Public and Private Sector reorganizations in the planning and execution of events.<\/p>\n

Col Needham, who celebrated his 89th birthday on the 23rd of December, was in 2018 the first Jamaican to receive an honorary commission from the Jamaica Defence Force, with which he worked integrally in publications, the production of military events, and the establishment of the military museum.<\/p>\n

The Governor-General and the Most Honourable Lady Allen extend their sincere condolence to his widow, Camille, their son Dominic, other relatives, and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSurprised and saddened!\u201d These were the words Governor-General Sir Patrick Allen used on hearing of the passing of Logistics and Protocol Consultant, Col (Hon) Merrick Needham, CD, MVO, earlier today. Highly respected and knowledgeable on matters of Protocol, Col Needham had a very close relationship with King\u2019s House and provided invaluable advice to successive Governors-General.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tributes","category-67","description-off"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8603,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions\/8603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingshouse.gov.jm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}