Colleagues, family bid farewell to media photographer

RETIRED Guardian senior photographer Anthony Ethelbert Howell was reunited in death with his late wife Kay when the urn with her ashes was placed in his casket.

Their five daughters felt it was the best way to reunite the couple upon watching their father grieve after their mother died just over one year ago.

Howell, 73, who had been ailing for some time, died on February 13 at the San Fernando General Hospital where he was often warded after suffering six strokes.

In keeping with his trade, Howell was buried in his photographer’s jacket and Guardian press pass. His trademark camera bag, packed with his equipment, remained on the closed lid of his white casket during the service at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church on Harris Promenade on Friday. It was removed before his burial at the St Clements Cemetery, Ste Madeleine.

A memorial service was held at the Skiffle Pan Theatre on Thursday evening, as friends, relatives, media colleagues and those from the creative sector celebrated his life.

Howell’s youngest daughter, Antonia, delivered the eulogy said her father taught his girls to always uplift people, be kind, have manners and be polite. She spoke of her dad, a Guyanese national, who gave up the land of his birth upon falling in love with Trinidad and his late wife, Kay.

A trusted camera, which his father gave him, was always at his side and when in the 1980’s he met now retired South Bureau Manager Hazel Ross-Perot he was encouraged to join the media as a photographer.

“At his workplace, Tony was always willing to share knowledge. He helped budding photographers and brought back stories for reporters dictating them word for word. He would stay in the office waiting for his colleagues to finish work, before walking home.

“He was instrumental in helping them in their personal lives as well, capturing photographs of their children and documenting important life events," his daughter said.