Dumas pays tribute to 'stalwart' Bessie Carrington

FORMER ambassador Reginald Dumas has paid tribute to Bessie Carrington, 86, who died last Wednesday, describing her as "one of the finest public servants I ever met."

Dumas said TT has lost another stalwart and lauded the hard work and dedication she displayed as a former solicitor general.

He said Carrington, born in Charlotteville, was a private person but performed her duties diligently.

He said in a press statement, "Although we had met briefly a few times before, it was only when I returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1984 at the end of my stint as High Commissioner of TT to Canada and was, among other things, appointed chairman of this country’s Standing Negotiating Committee on Air Services Agreements that I really got to know Bessie. As solicitor general, she was a member of the committee, and we came quickly to rely on her legal advice, which was always pertinent and sound."

He added, "Bessie had done well in her Bar exams many years before in London, and had risen through the ranks to the responsible post she held in the public service.

"She was an extremely hard worker, and conscientious, traits which her mother Sylveena had inspired in her. A reserved, private person, she always carried and conducted herself with dignity, without fuss or frills or fripperies, always adhering to unshakeable standards of ethical rectitude and frowning on the departures from those standards which she saw in too many others."

Dumas said although Carrington lived in Trinidad, she would often return to Charlotteville for a few days to "relax and recharge her batteries."

He continued, "We spoke quite a bit to each other, and I would joke that Charlotteville was not so much a village or a town as a republic with its own self-awareness and outlook on life, a haven you got to by passing through Tobago."

Dumas said Carrington, who had no children and was not married, imparted her wisdom, decorum and dedication to duty to her many nieces, blood-related and adopted.

"Those lessons were part of Sylveena’s legacy."

Dumas said all who interacted with Carrington "will always remember her kindness, her good sense, her excellent words of advice, her loyalty to family and friends, her unfailing evenness of temperament – in a word, her class, all underpinned by a deep religious faith. She was, very simply, a lady."