Ms. Borde, a Lower Estate resident, worked in the civil service for 30 years. A member of St. George’s Episcopal Church, she has served on several community bodies, including the Immigration Board.
Growing up
I was born Margaret Rymer, right in the heart of Road Town in 1932. My father, when I was born, was a civil servant, and my mother was a homemaker. We went to the Anglican school where the St. George’s Parish Hall is. It was called the St. George’s School. We were all Anglicans. We went to church and Sunday school and all the other activities of the day. We lived near to the church, so it was not too far to walk.
We walked to school every morning, and we went home for lunch as well. School closed between 3 o’clock and 3:30.
After then, I moved to the senior school. The school was founded in 1943. I went in 1944. I was quite a small person, so they had to make a special desk for me. Those other desks were too high for me.
You know, some of the children were even bigger than me, but I managed them just the same and I got to like them very much.
Public service
I left teaching after 13 years. I am a trained teacher, by the way. I went to Spring Garden Teachers College in Antigua. After I resigned from there, I went into the private sector for about five years, then I went into the public service as a civil servant in 1966 and I retired in 1996.
[Civil servants] were very well respected. There were certain things you could and could not do. Everybody looked up to you the same way they would look up to a teacher in the community. They were very well respected by children, parents and everybody in the community.
I started to work as a cashier at the treasury. In those days, auditors were not appointed here — they came from outside — and you always had to make sure your cash was up to date. Even if you were out by one cent, you stayed for hours and hours until you found where that cent was. You always had to be particular with your cash and make sure everything balanced at the end of the day.
Then I went into the electricity department. Then I moved up into natural resources, and I’ve been all kind of thing in the civil service. I was acting establishment officer — what they call human resources manager now. I was the first training officer for the civil service.
Social work
I became clerk to the Legislative Council. I spent a period of about three months in the first year: 1968. I was the first female clerk. All the time, it was men. During that period in 1968, I had accepted a training course in social work. I went on to do my social work. Then I came back here to social work. I was in charge of the social department. Then I was called back into the Legislative Council. I stayed there another 15-and-a-half years in all.
I enjoyed the Legislative Council. It was lively and you could hear a lot of opinions and that sort of thing. In those days, I had to do a lot of writing. We didn’t have all the technology. We had a typewriter, but I had to write by hand. I recorded all the minutes by hand. Sometimes, I’ll be here 2 o’clock in the morning trying to get the minutes sorted out, and then they were typed afterwards.
I miss being among people all the time and on a daily basis. My last post was at the Governor’s Office. I retired after four years there. I dealt with the Queen’s birthday celebrations, the ships committee: I had to welcome people on arrival and do all the programmes for them.
Public service today
Things have broken down a lot. Sometimes the people are not as polite. And then people years ago were more willing to help and get into people’s feelings. If people were in a hurry, you tried to understand with them and help them out. Sometimes people came from their jobs and didn’t have so much time. You try to help them. They were always willing to help others, no matter what time it was. They were not stuck on the clock. Now, people tend to be sitting down too much instead of probably going out more and helping. They want to sit in the office for long.
They have to know how to treat people. They have to be a people’s person. They have to know how to relate to people and how to be polite. Sometimes, customers may cause you to feel angry, but you have to learn to keep your temper in control. They need to manage expenditure much better and not be so wasteful.
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