SERGEANT MORGAN

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Three decades ago, our Police Force was somewhat different than today.  While today we are accustomed to encountering female police constables, corporals and sergeants, back in the 1970s it was a male dominated profession.  This didn’t hinder the ambitions of Ranalda Whyte (better known today as Sergeant Morgan), however, who at the beginning of this month took retirement after an exceptional 29 years of service with the Police Force.

Born the second child of ten in Sittee River, Ranalda was raised by foster parents in Corozal, where she acquired three foster siblings with whom she grew up.  She considers herself blessed to have been allowed to remain a child, with few chores around the home other than ensuring she was up to date with school work for St Francis Xavier School, and later for Xavier College. This ensured that she always achieved satisfactory grades to enable her to continue her education, and upon graduation she was accepted as a teacher in Libertad and Paraiso.

When Ranalda became pregnant in the late 1970s, she terminated her teaching commitment, and after becoming a mother, she sought other means of financially supporting herself. In 1980, the Government was advertising vacancies for public servants, including nurses and police officers.  Always one for a challenge, Ranalda decided to enrol in the Police Force and following six months of training at the Ladyville headquarters, she emerged as Constable Whyte.  Two years later, after marriage to Albert Morgan (Sr.) in April 1982, Ranalda became better known as Constable Morgan.  All 29 years of her service with the Force have been spent at the Queen Street premises, although she has proved a valuable asset to the Force in various branches, including Traffic, Patrol, CIB, SB, and Criminal Records.

Constable Morgan became a force to be reckoned with (and many of her colleagues still refer to the fear she instilled in a thief she caught hiding in a church’s closet!) and in 1995 she was promoted to the rank of Corporal for exceptional service to the Force.  Further career success saw another promotion, and on 1^st August 2001, Ranalda achieved her greatest recognition as she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

The remarkable part of the story is that Sergeant Morgan worked full time throughout her 29 years of service, despite the fact that simultaneously she had significant family commitments of raising four sons. She remembers times when she couldn’t secure reliable child-care, and she would have to hurry home during her breaks to check on the children, which must have been exhausting.  Yet her commitment to the Police Force never faltered, and her records glow with gratification and respect from fellow officers and superiors.

During difficult periods of her life, Sergeant Morgan has always placed her faith in God, and somehow has found the strength to conquer anything that confronted her. She believes that she has been successful in life because she has never forgotten her moral upbringing, and if she happens to falter, she (somewhat ironically) considers herself “man enough” to apologise.

Only recently since her health began to falter, with diabetes and hypertension, has Sergeant Morgan decided to hang up her uniform for the last time, and retire.  Having spent her entire life serving her community and her nation, Sergeant Morgan is looking forward to having some free time to pursue her hobbies and maybe even fulfil her lifelong ambition of visiting Paris! And there are few women who deserve the luxury of retirement more than Sergeant Morgan, a lady who has dedicated her entire life to making Belize a safer, more secure place for Belizeans to grow and develop.

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