Michael John Belcher

May he rest where calm seas be, with fair winds through eternity.

Obituary

It is with deeply saddened hearts that we announce the peaceful passing of our beloved Captain.

He is lovingly remembered by his beloved wife Stephanie; children Kim, Debbie and Sean; grandchildren Blaise (Katelyn), Asia (Eric), Leah, Emily, and Katie; great-grandchildren Ezekiel and Adaliah; sisters Bridget and Sue; nephews and nieces; and numerous other precious family members and cherished friends.

REMEMBRANCE 

MICHAEL JOHN BELCHER
OCTOBER 18, 1933 - MARCH 16, 2026
The Jamaica Directory of Personalities describes him thus:
“Belcher, Michael John J.P.;
Fellow of the British Institute of Directors,
Member of the Nautical Institute, Master Mariner,
retired Director of GraceKennedy,
past President of the Shipping Association of Jamaica,
retired member of the Marine Board, Jamaica.
Born in London, England: 18.10.1933, son of the late John Belcher, Actuary and the late Beatrice M. Belcher. Educated British Secondary and Grammar Schools,
King Edward V11 Nautical College, University of Wales (Institute of Science and Technology),and
London University.
Career: Seafaring 1950 – 1963.
 Land-based: 1963 – 1999.
Port Services Ltd: General Manager 1963-67, Managing Director 1967-71, Kingston Wharves Ltd: General Manager 1971-76; Managing Director 1976-80; Kingston Terminal Operators Ltd 1978-84; Managing Director since 1984. GraceKennedy board 1979. 1980 Divisional Director GKShipping. First Recipient of the Personality of the Year Award from the Shipping Association of Jamaica, for contributions to the development of the Shipping Industry in Jamaica. Denomination: Church of England. Married: Stephanie Jennifer Newland, December 22, 1979; 1 son, 2 daughters. Interests: Flying, golf, squash, music, theatre, shooting, swimming, sailing.” The first three interests had died a natural death during his 70s.
Who was the man? To those who asked about his age, he loved to say
“I was born at an early age”. He was indeed. None of us here knew about or experienced the bombings and blackouts which were part and parcel of his life as a young boy. As the bombings escalated, he and his siblings with hundreds of other youth were evacuated to farms in north and northwest England. Here are some other little known facts about him:
 In his youth, while evacuated, he worked on a farm in England, herding cows and riding around on tractors;
 He was an accomplished equestrian and rode horses competitively until he left home for sea;
 During shore breaks, he worked at a cattle station in Australia and a logging camp in Canada;
 He held a private pilot’s licence and, as President of the Caribbean Air Rally Association, has flown twin-engine aircraft between Jamaica and Trinidad, Barbados and the Turks and Caicos Islands;
 He played the guitar and the harmonica and loved to sing;
 He enjoyed painting and, using oils on canvas, he participated in art exhibitions in the UK and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
 He was an avid recreational fisherman.
 He loved to travel
Highlights of his seafaring days were
 Voyages to the far east,
 Learning to cope with freezing weather when his ship was icebound in Siberia, and
 His many trips between Liverpool and Jamaica, as First Mate on the Jamaica Producer.
When asked how many countries he had visited, Mike would say it would be far easier to say where he had not gone, having been to all the European and Mediterranean countries, several African countries, Australia, China and Japan, and the Americas. He noted wistfully that the only country which he has really wanted to visit, but so far has not managed to reach, is New Zealand. We were so hoping to have done that this year going west, he said, in very slow stages across southern USA, then the long flight to Aukland.
Life ashore
 His years spent at sea working up the ranks, qualifying and serving for many years as an officer, were excellent preparation for serving at the helm of land-based management positions in the shipping industry in Jamaica. The many tributes paid to him over the years are testament to his expertise and determination to lead the Terminal from strength to strength at times in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
 What were the secrets to his successes? He has said that he has always had competent, supportive, wonderful people on his team. He noted that he has tried to be respectful to all and attempted to instill that approach in others. He always showed appreciation for anything someone did for him, no matter how small the task. He emphasized the importance of listening genuinely to everyone as everyone has something to offer. He has also asserted that well placed humour can help to create a relaxed, productive workplace.
How did we meet?
Learning to speak Jamaican patois
The Artist
One day, close to the dreaded retirement, we would talk about what fun things he would like to do … and I was surprised when he mentioned that he’d wanted to paint all his life. However, growing up during a global war, he had to put that passion on the back burner. On retirement, we bought a house in Oxfordshire, England in 1998. Then reached out to Bryn Hillier, an artist who had been recommended to him. She asked “What do you want to learn to paint?” He replied, “I eventually want to be able to paint glass”. She said “Alright then, we’ll start with that!” So the first thing he ever painted was a jam jar!
Bryn seemed impressed with his progress during a year of weekly lessons, and she urged him to take an art degree. So he attended the Oxford and Cherwell Valley College to study art and design. Using a portmanteau of his name Michael John Belcher, “Mijobe” the artist was born. “I like creating something and I like watching it come out of the canvas,” he reflected “Like painting something made of silver – quite often, it doesn’t appear that way until the very end.” When I get a whim to paint, it’s like an intuitive urge that comes over me and I’ll do nothing but paint for three days. Mijobe pieces are generally described as “quirky, colourful, often detailed …and always wonderful.”
In 2005, his work was selected for an exhibition. “It was a huge exhibition searching for “young” and talented artists,” he laughed. He was 72 years old at the time. “My Dahlias got special mention, and was featured in The Guardian, December 2005,” he said with a smile. I have such a warm memory of that occasion - when he read the article in the Guardian, entitled Journey of Discovery ~ Amazing Art work on display to find hidden talents, saw his painting Dahlias on display, he looked at me with such an astonished, bemused expression and said,”I’ve never had anything like this happen to me in my entire life!”

The islands inevitably called him back. “I really am an island person – especially the West Indies- so I wanted to come back”. Since the crime rate in Jamaica was then high, and friends had invited us to visit them in the Turks and Caicos Islands, we happily did so, subsequently agreeing that that this was the most peaceful place we’d lived in for a long time.
Mike had hoped to continue to hone his craft, capturing marine life on canvas. “The TCI waters are crystal clear” he would exclaim ..”When you throw some bait in the ocean, the fish take it right away, so there’s lots of inspiration in the water here”. When not painting, he played his guitar or harmonica, watched movies and absolutely loved to go fishing whenever the opportunity arose.
Mike’s fishing buddies were John Parker, John Wildish, Thad Harty, Roy Forrester and a few others depending on the season. He LOVED to go fishing, not just catching the fish (that was the climax), but he enjoyed the preparation and getting me caught up in it - preparing sandwiches, packing fruit and drinks while he selected and prepared his rods and generally got ready for the day.
Travel
Mostly to learn about different cultures, our wanderlust took us each year to a different country; we also loved travelling in and around Jamaica. Even when mobility issues started to take hold, that spark in him never dimmed. Thanks to our friends John and Michelle, we visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre just last October. That was SPECIAL… even though he was slowing down, needed a wheelchair to get around, Mike was determined to go and just as determined to absorb as much of all the displays as he could at the Space Centre. That was Mike – curious, courageous and always ready for one more adventure. That was to be his last trip abroad… celebrating his 92nd birthday.

Family
He very much loved and enjoyed family life: he had been a loving and devoted son to his parents; and lived a positive and fulfilling life by example to his beloved children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews. You will see on the website many pictures of family get-togethers … he enjoyed singing and playing the guitar with them, he enjoyed playing the harmonica with me accompanying him at the piano, he relished simple lunch threesomes to Chinese dinners for eight or more …..to large groups on weekly boat trips. In their younger days, the children relished the weekends: Kim, Debbie, Sean joined by cousins Hilary and John… Mike taught them great harmonizing songs which they would belt out lustily …
In the Pines, Down By the Old Mill Stream, Sweet Adeline.  And board games! We all had fun joined by my niece and nephew Debbie and Stephen, playing Monopoly, Uno, Risk and Scrabble. We enjoyed each other, we enjoyed our friends, enjoyed nature, enjoyed life.

In our latter years, he suffered through and overcame many health challenges. Our doctors have asserted that were it not for our combined tenacity and positivity, he would not have survived beyond eighty-two years. Yet here he was enjoying his ninetieth birthday, ninety-first, ninety-second … looking forward to another fishing trip with John.
We’re here to remember a man who lived to 92 ... and if you asked him how he was he’d tell you, “I’m all left on one side and alright on the other” even though he had serious problems that day. He had a remarkable talent for turning his aches and pains into entertainment. Most people keep a list of their medications – he kept an alphabetized list of his ailments:
A for arthritis; B for backpain; C for cancer and cardiovascular disease etc… And after he had run through the alphabet like a doctor giving a lecture, he’d finish with, “Other than that, I’m ok!”
It was impossible not to laugh, even as you were trying to remember if he’d skipped any letters.
He hated going to the doctor, but didn’t let anyone know that. Instead he turned every appointment into a comedy routine. He’d wobble dramatically as if he were going to topple over, even though he was as steady as a table. And when the nurse came at him with a needle, he’d pull a face so ghastly, you’d think he was auditioning for a horror film – all to hide the fact that he was horrified of injections.
But beneath all the jokes and theatrics was someone who understood that laughter makes life lighter. He used humour not to avoid reality, but to make life easier for everyone around him. He didn’t just live a long life – he lived it with compassion and kindness, he lived it with wit, mischief and a kind of playful resilience that made the hard moments feel softer.
We will miss him, but we’ll also keep laughing, because he left us so many reasons to do so.
One of the things I’ll miss most is the way he used humour to soften the hard edges of life. If you asked him how he was, he’d give that classic line: “I’m all left on one side and alright the other” It didn’t matter how many times I’d heard it, it always made me smile, partly because it was funny and partly because it was so Mike. That was his way of saying, “Don’t worry about me” even when maybe we should be.
What I treasure most is the man behind the humour – the one who used laughter not to hide from life, but to meet it on his own terms. He taught me that you can be brave without being serious, that you can face pain without losing your spark, and that sometimes the best way to carry the weight of life is to make someone else smile.
I’ll miss him – the real him… but I’ll also carry those memories with me because they are reminders of his resilience, his mischief, and the way he made even the difficult moments feel lighter.

When I think of Mike, I don’t just remember the jokes, the alphabet of ailments, or the way he could turn a doctor’s appointment into a comedy sketch. I remember the man who walked beside me for 47 mostly wonderful years filled with companionship, challenges, laughter, and the kind of love that grows deeper because it’s lived through real life, not in spite of it.
We had our hitches, of course. Every long marriage does. But what mattered was that we always quickly found our way back to each other. We looked after one another, sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small, everyday ways that only the two of us would ever fully understand. He wasn’t just my husband. He was absolutely my best friend. The person I could rely on, confide in, laugh with, and lean on.
I loved him deeply. I still do. And I carry him with me – in the stories, in the laughter, in the quiet moments when I feel his presence beside me. He will be with me forever ….

Additional info on Art: some of his subjects have been commissioned repeatedly, having attracted attention for their composition and texture. Very popular are the breadfruit tree, orchids, lillies,and roses.
His work has been exhibited in Oxfordshire and the TCI, receiving 
favourable reviews in the print media. Paintings have found homes in the UK, USA, Jamaica and TCI.

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