Chair­man Emer­i­tus of ANSA McAL Group of Com­pa­nies, Dr An­tho­ny Nor­man Sab­ga, is one of the four out­stand­ing cit­i­zens who will be re­ceiv­ing the pres­ti­gious Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day. In a brief com­ment yes­ter­day Dr Sab­ga said: "I am sur­prised and hum­bled to be ac­knowl­edged again by this coun­try I love so much."

The oth­ers are: • Jus­tice Philip Louis Ul­ric Cross for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to T&T in the sphere of law; • busi­ness­woman He­len Bhag­wans­ingh for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to T&T in the sphere of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice; • wid­ow of the late pres­i­dent Noor Has­sanali, Za­lay­har Has­sanali, for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to T&T in the sphere of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

Fol­low­ing are brief bi­ogra­phies of this year's Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T re­cip­i­ents

Jus­tice Philip Louis Ul­ric Cross

Jus­tice Philip Louis Ul­ric Cross, born May 1917, is one of the most dec­o­rat­ed West In­di­an Squadron lead­ers of World War II. At 24, Cross joined the Roy­al Air Force (RAF) in 1941 to fight Nazi Ger­many.

Ex­celling as a nav­i­ga­tor, Cross joined the elite Pathfind­er squadron of Mos­qui­to bombers. Cross had flown more than 80 bomb­ing mis­sions, in­clud­ing 21 over Berlin, Ger­many, by the end of WWII. In June 1944 he was award­ed the Dis­tin­guished Fly­ing Cross and in Jan­u­ary 1945 he was award­ed the Dis­tin­guished Ser­vice Or­der in recog­ni­tion of his de­vo­tion and ex­cel­lence in the RAF. Af­ter WWII, Cross went on to study law, com­plet­ing his le­gal train­ing in 1949. He spent 16 years in Africa as a lawyer, start­ing off in Ghana.

He served as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al in Cameroon and be­came a High Court judge in Tan­za­nia be­fore re­turn­ing to Trinidad in 1974. In 1979 he was served as Judge of the Court of Ap­peal.From 1982-83 he served as chair­man of the Law Re­form Com­mis­sion of T&T. Cross is now re­tired and liv­ing in T&T.

He­len Bhag­wans­ingh

He­len Bhag­wans­ingh is revered as one of the most suc­cess­ful busi­ness­women in T&T. She was born in San Fer­nan­do and at age 11 left school to run her fam­i­ly's bi­cy­cle re­pair shop. He­len mar­ried Hu­bert Bhag­wans­ingh and in 1969 pur­chased the Kay Don­na dri­ve-In cin­e­ma, Val­sayn, which she ran suc­cess­ful­ly un­til sell­ing it 1977. Bhag­wans­ingh, once again, joined her fam­i­ly's hard­ware busi­ness. She ran and lat­er bought a small branch of Ra­moutars­ingh's Hard­ware, Sea Lots. It took her and her hus­band two years to turn Ra­moutars­ingh's in­to a boom­ing busi­ness. Bhag­wans­ingh re­named the store Bhag­wans­ingh's Hard­ware. She ex­pand­ed the hard­ware's reach by pro­vid­ing a full range of build­ing sup­plies. In 1988, a branch of Bhag­wans­ingh's was opened in Ch­agua­nas, fol­lowed by a Mara­bel­la branch in 1995 and one in Trinci­ty in 2007. In 1996 Bhag­wans­ingh's ac­quired Dansteel and in 1998 Cen­trin, turn­ing Bhag­wans­ingh's in­to an em­pire that to­day em­ploys over 1,200. in­clud­ing her four chil­dren. In 2000 she was named "Woman of the Mil­len­ni­um" by the T&T Cham­ber of En­er­gy and was the first woman to be in­duct­ed in­to the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce's Busi­ness Hall of Fame. He­len Bhag­wans­ingh al­so had been praised for her so­cial con­tri­bu­tions. She es­tab­lished the Uni­ver­si­ty of West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus', Di­a­betes Ed­u­ca­tion, Re­search and Pre­ven­tion Trust, do­nat­ing $5 mil­lion to its start.

Bhag­wans­ingh al­so was re­spon­si­ble for the Christ­mas stars erect­ed on the Laven­tille and San Fer­nan­do Hills,

An­tho­ny Nor­man Sab­ga

An­tho­ny Nor­man Sab­ga is one of T&T most recog­nised busi­ness­men, who over the course of six decades has built one of the re­gion's strongest busi­ness con­glom­er­ates. Born in Syr­ia in 1923, An­tho­ny was the sec­ond of three sons of Nor­man and Sarah Sab­ga.He at­tend­ed Nel­son Street Boys' RC. How­ev­er, at age 14 he left school to help his broth­ers run the fam­i­ly busi­ness, NS Sab­ga & Sons. In 1945, Sab­ga, against his fa­ther's wish­es, left the fam­i­ly busi­ness and es­tab­lished Stan­dard Dis­trib­u­tors. An­tho­ny Sab­ga mar­ried Min­er­va in Sep­tem­ber 1948 and had six chil­dren. His busi­ness be­gan to boom af­ter a vis­it to Hanover, Ger­many, when he got the idea of sell­ing ap­pli­ances. In 1966, Sab­ga es­tab­lished ANSA In­dus­tries, which be­came a con­sor­tium of the most im­por­tant ap­pli­ance man­u­fac­tur­ers in the coun­try. ANSA In­dus­tries man­u­fac­tured ap­pli­ances lo­cal­ly through li­cens­ing agree­ments with in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised brands. ANSA In­dus­tries fo­cussed on ex­ports, sell­ing its goods not on­ly to Cari­com and non-Cari­com coun­tries.

In 1968 Sab­ga won the first Prime Min­is­ter's Award for Ex­port Per­for­mance. Sab­ga's oth­er com­pa­nies, Stan­dard Dis­trib­u­tors and Farm­house In­dus­tries, con­tin­ued to be very prof­itable with ANSA's sub­sidiaries in oth­er Caribbean coun­tries. Lat­er ANSA In­dus­tries be­came Con­sol­i­dat­ed Ap­pli­ances Ltd. In the 1970s Sab­ga ac­quired the lu­cra­tive agency for the Hei­del­berg print­ing press and suc­cess­ful­ly sold print­ing press­es across the Caribbean. In the 80s he ac­quired the strug­gling McE­near­ney-Al­stons group. The merg­er of ANSA, McE­near­ney & Co and Al­stons Ltd has made ANSA McAL a re­gion­al leader in man­u­fac­tur­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion, ser­vices, pack­ag­ing, au­to­mo­tive, me­dia, ship­ping, trav­el, bank­ing, in­sur­ance and re­al es­tate.

Sab­ga has re­ceived many awards for his con­tri­bu­tion to the growth and wel­fare of T&T. These in­clude: • The Cha­co­nia Medal Gold 1998; • the UWI Doc­tor of Laws Hon­oris Causa 1998; • the Ernst & Young Mas­ter En­tre­pre­neur of the Year 1998; • T&T Icons of the Na­tion in the cat­e­go­ry: Thinkers, Movers and Shapers 2002; • the Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre Award 2003; • the Amer­i­can Foun­da­tion for out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the Caribbean 2004; and • Prime Min­is­ter's Award for In­no­va­tion and In­ven­tion, Life­time Achieve­ment Award Man­u­fac­tur­ing Sec­tor 2004.

Za­lay­har Has­sanali

Za­lay­har Has­sanali is known well be­yond serv­ing as first la­dy of the na­tion from 1987 to 1997. She is known for her con­tri­bu­tions to cul­ture, child wel­fare, the en­vi­ron­ment and ed­u­ca­tion. Dur­ing her po­si­tion as first la­dy, Has­sanali was in­volved with 44 Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Or­gan­i­sa­tions, char­i­ty groups and so­cial foun­da­tions. Has­sanali was born in hum­ble sur­round­ings on May 3 1931 in Siparia. Her fa­ther, Ali Mo­hammed, was a tai­lor and her moth­er Khar­toon was a seam­stress. She at­tend­ed Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School, Na­pari­ma Girls' High School from 1944 to 1947 and Na­pari­ma Col­lege from 1948 to 1949. At 21 she mar­ried up­com­ing lawyer, Noor Has­sanali, who prac­tised in San Fer­nan­do. She had two chil­dren, Khalid and Ame­na. Be­fore be­com­ing first la­dy, Has­sanali worked in ed­u­ca­tion and served as a found­ing mem­ber of the Mus­lim Teach­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion. Dur­ing her time as first la­dy she at­tend­ed six First Ladies of The Amer­i­c­as and the Caribbean Con­fer­ences. To­day she con­tin­ues to serve the coun­try through her in­volve­ment in many non-gov­ern­men­tal and char­i­ta­ble or­gan­i­sa­tions.

Some of the or­gan­i­sa­tion Has­sanali has been in­volved with in­clude: The Child Wel­fare League of T&T, the Sco­tia Bank Foun­da­tion, Unit­ed Way of T&T, the Can­cer So­ci­ety of T&T and the To­ba­go Coun­cil of Hand­i­capped Chil­dren.

The Or­der of The Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Philip Louis Ul­ric Cross re­tired judge law

Za­lay­har Has­sanali so­cial work­er com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

He­len Bhag­wans­ingh busi­ness­woman com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

An­tho­ny Nor­man Sab­ga busi­ness­man com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

The Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Robert Theophillus Yorke•busi­ness­man•busi­ness

Stephanie Daly•at­tor­ney-at-law•law

Pas­tor Win­ston Cuffie•min­is­ter of re­li­gion•re­li­gion

Louis Patrick Arnold•arranger•mu­sic

Pun­dit Har­dath Ma­haraj min­is­ter of re­li­gion Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice

The Cha­co­nia Medal (Sil­ver)

Name Sta­tus Ser­vice:

Desmond Al­lum SC (posthu­mous) at­tor­ney com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Basharat Ali chem­i­cal en­gi­neer pub­lic ser­vice

Rev Ralph Um­raw ed­u­ca­tor ed­u­ca­tion

Dr Su­san Eliz­a­beth Craig-James so­ci­ol­o­gist ed­u­ca­tion

Hum­ming Bird Medal (GOLD)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Fr Clyde Har­vey priest re­li­gion and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Desmond Park­er diplo­mat pub­lic ser­vice

Denyse Plum­mer en­ter­tain­er cul­ture

Hum­ming Bird Medal (Sil­ver)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Dr Ku­mar Ma­habir as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor ed­u­ca­tion

Mal­ick Tas­sa Drum­mers tas­sa drum­mers cul­ture

Dow Vil­lage Ram­leela cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tion cul­ture

Joan E Bish­op so­cial work­er com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Syl­van Rol­locks busi­ness­man com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Ir­ma Ipyana Si­mon­ette busi­ness­woman cul­ture

De­o­nanan Jagdeosingh re­tired pub­lic ser­vant com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Hum­ming Bird Medal (Bronze)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Elon Hay­den Mayo re­search de­vel­op­ment gal­lantry

Chaitram Ram­per­sad so­cial ac­tivist com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Gold)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Gladys Gafoor re­tired judge pub­lic ser­vice

Jean Frances Novel­la Grayson nurs­ing ad­min­is­tra­tor ed­u­ca­tion

Dr Noel Kalicha­ran lec­tur­er ed­u­ca­tion

Dr Austin Trinidade ENT spe­cial­ist med­i­cine

Ous­man Ali re­tired per­ma­nent sec­re­tary pub­lic ser­vice

Pro­fes­sor Su­ru­j­pal Teelucks­ingh lec­tur­er med­i­cine

Ran­jit Ram­nar­ine so­cial work­er Pub­lic Ser­vice

Kem­chan Ram­dath re­tired per­ma­nent sec­re­tary pub­lic ser­vice

Ad­di­son Mase­field Khan ju­di­cial of­fi­cer pub­lic ser­vice

Kr­ishen­dath Ra­moutar banker com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Gold)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Dr Amar­nath Ka­mal Ram­per­sad med­ical doc­tor med­i­cine

Ma­jor Gen­er­al Ed­mund Dil­lon re­tired mil­i­tary of­fi­cer pub­lic ser­vice

Mar­garet Samp­son-Browne re­tired po­lice of­fi­cer pub­lic ser­vice

Pun­dit Hard­eo Per­sad re­tired school teacher pub­lic ser­vice

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Sil­ver)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Esa­hack Mo­hammed re­tired di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Ser­vice ed­u­ca­tion

Ber­nice Wilma Avis-Par­ris reg­is­tered nurse pub­lic ser­vice

Hard­eo Ram­s­ingh re­tired prin­ci­pal I pub­lic and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Sheila Prince re­tired po­lice in­spec­tor pub­lic ser­vice

Der­rick Shar­bod­ie po­lice of­fi­cer pub­lic ser­vice

Patrick Jug­mo­hans­ingh re­tired ed­u­ca­tor pub­lic ser­vice

Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women (Gold)

Name•Sta­tus•Ser­vice

Hazel An­gela Brown co-or­di­na­tor, Net­work of NGOs com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Di­ana Mary Ma­habir-Wy­att so­cial ac­tivist com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

Bren­da Gopeesingh so­cial ac­tivist com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice