BREAKING NEWS-Managing Director of H.H.V Whitchurch Gerry Aird has died

Nature Isle News (NIN) can confirm that Gerry Aird, Managing Director of H.H.V. Whitchurch, has passed away.

Reports are that he died at his home in Dominica on July 18, 2025. Nature Isle News extends condolences to his family and the Staff of H.H.V. Whitchurch & Co.

Mr. Aird, as he is fondly known, had been ailing now for some time and was a member of the Aird family, which has owned and managed the company H.H.V. Whitchurch & Company Limited since 1946.

H.H.V. Whitchurch & Company Limited was founded in 1910 by Herbert Harry Vivian Whitchurch, an estate manager originally from Southampton, England. The company began as a general and commission merchant business in Roseau and expanded into insurance, an automobile and shipping agency, and retail. It was known for operating Dominica’s first supermarket.

In 1926, Whitchurch became the agent for Lloyds of London. After Whitchurch died in 1946, his son-in-law James Otto Aird, originally from Guyana, became Managing Director. Since then, the company has remained under the management of Whitchurch’s descendants.

Following a fire in 1961 that destroyed its Old Street premises, the company relocated to the former L. Rose & Co. building on New Street, now Kennedy Avenue. It later repurchased and restored the building in 2002. The company’s agencies, including Western Union, DHL, and Millennium Freight Services, currently operate from that location.

The Old Street property was rebuilt and reopened as a shopping centre in 1975, with new offices completed in 1984. Whitchurch is one of Dominica’s longest-serving merchant companies, alongside J.A.S. Garraway, A.A. Baron & Co., and L.A. Dupigny & Co. Ltd.

Today, Whitchurch operates in various sectors including duty-free shopping, shipping, insurance, travel services, food distribution, cruise ship agency, and money transfer services. It employs over 235 people in Dominica.