Alumni
MUN Remembers Anthony Vincent '57 (Groves')
On their way to Montreal in November for a Model UN conference, a contingent of Shawnigan students stopped in Ottawa to tour Parliament Hill and some of Canada’s national museums. While in the capital, they paid a visit to Mrs. Lucie Vincent, the widow of Anthony Vincent ’57 (Groves’), a former Canadian ambassador to Peru, who Social Studies teacher Mr. Paul Klassen calls “one of our most distinguished graduates.” (A photo is included of Mr. Vincent, far right, when he was a Prefect in 1957.)
While working in Peru, the late Mr. Vincent helped liberate several hostages when the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima was occupied by guerillas in 1996. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent were taken hostage along with more than 600 others when Tupac Amaru guerillas stormed the residence of the Japanese ambassador on December 17, 1996. Although he was released by the guerillas early in the crisis, Mr. Vincent offered to serve as a liaison between the hostage-takers and negotiators, and between the hostages themselves and the outside world.
The crisis came to an end on April 21, 1997, when the residence was retaken by the Peruvian military, and all of the Tupac Amaru fighters were killed, along with a hostage and two Peruvian commandos. Mr. Vincent felt that the two sides were close to a settlement before the Peruvian government decided on a military assault.
Mr. Vincent became ambassador to Spain, considered a promotion from his post in Peru. He died in Montreal in 1999 at the age of 59 and was eulogized by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, among others. Chrétien devoted the first chapter of his 2018 memoir to Mr. Vincent, calling him an “unsung hero who did honour to his profession and his country.”
While in Ottawa, Mr. Klassen and the students presented Mrs. Vincent with a Shawnigan scarf and a framed photo of Mr. Vincent in front of the Main Building when he was a prefect in 1957. Mrs. Vincent also took the students to an Ottawa park named in honour of her late husband.
When they continued on to Montreal, three Shawnigan students won coveted gavels as best delegates and one earned an honourable mention at the renowned Secondary Schools United Nations Symposium hosted by McGill University.
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
