Sir Fenton's remains for homeland, Guyana

SIR Fenton Ramsahoye, QC,who died in Barbados on Thursday last week, will be cremated there and his remains taken to his homeland of Guyana.

An article in the Stabroek News of Guyana quoted Ramsahoye’s brother, Dr Walter Ramsahoye, as saying the leading regional lawyer died at Bayview Hospital after a brief illness, with one of his two sons, Bernard, at his bedside.

Walter said his brother's wish was "to have his remains cremated wherever he died and to have them returned to Guyana to be buried in the Blankenburg Anglican churchyard, closer to his childhood home in Blankenburg, West Coast Demerara."

Ramsahoye, 89, was Guyana's first attorney general. He lived and worked in TT for many years. He leaves to mourn his widow Phyllis and sons. Bernard is a professor of medicine.

The Stabroek News reported, "Speaking of his brother, Walter said Sir Fenton was a lawyer par excellence, having the reputation in the British Commonwealth of winning more cases in the Privy Council in London, than any other lawyer in the commonwealth.”

It quoted a tribute from Guyana's bar association which said, “Sir Fenton was one of the greatest legal luminaries ever produced by Guyana."

An official from the Law Association of TT told Newsday it would pay tribute to Ramsahoye in a media release this week.

Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, said he worked with Ramsahoye in over 20 cases from TT’s High Court to the Privy Council.

He recalled when he was jailed for contempt of court in 1976 by the late Sonny Maharaj for refusing to apologise to the judge, “It was Ramsahoye who argued my case in the Appeal Court and the Privy Council. The law lords in their judgment agreed with Fenton that lawyers must not be subservient to judges if they feel they are misconducting themselves on the bench to the detriment of clients.”

Maharaj also recalled the famous case of the Judge’s Wife, which dealt with the rights of the media to report on matters affecting the public interest.

Ramsahoye, Maharaj said, was a strong advocate of retaining the Privy Council.

“He was strong in his view that justice was too important for the average man and woman to be left for small societies like ours to have the final say.”