Sir Fenton’s funeral

SIR Fenton Ramahoye’s funeral will take place tomorrow at the Chapel of Coral Ridge Memorial Garden, Christ Church, Barbados. Several local attorneys will be attending, among them former vice president of the Law Association Hendrickson Seunath, SC.

Legal luminary he was, having argued in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council most of the appeal cases emanating from the jurisdiction of the English-speaking Caribbean, Ramsahoye, 89, lived and practised law in TT since 1976. He also lived and worked in other Caribbean neighbouring countries.

Ramsahoye, 89, was Guyanese born and that country’s first attorney general. He died last week Thursday and leaves to morn wife Phyllis, sons Fenton Jr and Bernard. He was a grandfather of five.

Ramsahoye worked on several public law cases with former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Seunath and former AG Anand Ramlogan. One such case which went to the privy council came to be known as the Trinity Cross case which was filed by the Maha Sabha and other organisations. The outcome resulted in government changing the Trinity Cross to the Order of Trinidad and Tobago to represent the nation’s highest award. According to a notice published yesterday in several online and print newspapers in Barbados, viewing will take place between 4 pm and 6 pm today (Friday) at Lynhurst Funeral Home, Christ Church. The funeral leaves the funeral home tomorrow at 10 am for the chapel of Coral Ridge Memorial Gardens Christ Church.

In lieu of flowers, donations will go towards Cancer Support Services, the death notice said. Paying tribute yesterday, Seunath said, “He was a legal luminary who shone the light on the law, forcing changes not only to the constitutions in the Caribbean, but on the law affecting the rights and lives of ordinary citizens. He had a unique passion for the law and deliberately made the law literally his jealous mistress.” Seunath added, “His most comfortable arena was the privy council where the law lords, with their vast knowledge and experience of the law, more readily understood and appreciated the dept and substance of his scholarly submissions. He occasionally referred to some of our local judges as persons whose names did not find their way into the law books.”