Michelle Loubon

Em­i­nent at­tor­ney Desmond "Dessie" Al­lum, 75, was re­mem­bered as a for­mi­da­ble mem­ber of the Bar, but it was hu­man­i­ty that de­fined his ex­is­tence.

While the su­perla­tives flowed, each speak­er re­flect­ed on his com­pas­sion for mankind, dur­ing his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the packed St Mary's RC Church in St James, yes­ter­day. He had suc­cumbed to can­cer at his Dere Street, Port-of-Spain, home on June 17. Among those pay­ing their last re­spects were his wid­ow, Cathy, and chil­dren, Tara, Siob­hain and James. Eu­lo­gies were read by child­hood friend James Mil­lette, at­tor­ney Gre­go­ry Delzin and pres­i­dent of the Cot­ton Tree Foun­da­tion, Megan Hop­kyn-Rees. Delzin, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Trin­i­ty Cham­bers, said: "He taught us by ex­am­ple. He taught us be­yond the prac­tice of law. He ex­posed us to his fam­i­ly; he taught us what was ex­pect­ed of a good leader. "The dis­tinct fea­ture was the client's need. He had a spe­cial place for young lawyers."

Delzin re­mem­bered that un­der Al­lum's watch, Trin­i­ty Cham­bers had es­tab­lished a spe­cial prize for stu­dents at Hugh Wood­ing Law School at UWI in St Au­gus­tine. Com­pound­ed with his con­cern for the im­prove­ment of peo­ple, Delzin paid trib­ute to his skills as a de­bater. "He was known for clear, co­gent ar­gu­ments. Nev­er was it filled with ran­cour. He was known for 'ty­ing up' peo­ple in court. They would tell him that and laugh­ter would spread through­out the court." At one point, Al­lum be­came dis­ap­point­ed with peo­ple, pol­i­tics and crick­et, said Delzin. He be­came ac­tive in the Con­gress of the Peo­ple, where he served as spokesman for jus­tice. He reg­is­tered his so­cial con­science by "writ­ing let­ters and speak­ing out on con­tro­ver­sial is­sues."When the end ap­proached, Al­lum em­braced it. He said: "I have lived a great life. I can­not say it lacked suc­cess. I am ready to go." Four priests of­fi­ci­at­ed at the ser­vice–Frs Clyde Har­vey, Hen­ry Charles, Em­manuel Pierre and Mack­han.

Mourn­ers' list

Among those pay­ing their last re­spects were Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, for­mer pres­i­dent Sir El­lis Clarke and scores of at­tor­neys, in­clud­ing At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan. They were joined by for­mer chief jus­tice Sat­nar­ine Shar­ma, Stan­ley John, Ce­cil Kel­sick, Mar­tin Daly, SC, and old­est T&T judge, Ul­ric Cross. A cross-sec­tion of cit­i­zens rep­re­sent­ed so­cial, eco­nom­ic, po­lit­i­cal and re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions: Politi­cians like Win­ston Dook­er­an, Kei­th Row­ley, Ken Val­ley, Wen­dell Mot­t­ley, and Prakash Ra­mad­har; and trade union­ist David Ab­du­lah. Spe­cial trib­utes came from thes­pi­an Be­lin­da Barnes, who brought the words of Do Not Go Gen­tly In­to That Good Night. Siob­hain Al­lum read from Ec­cle­si­astes vers­es 1 to 12. The min­ster was filled with the ethe­re­al singing of How Great Thou Art, Stephen Enci­nas' Ave Maria and Amaz­ing Grace. Led by mu­si­col­o­gist Pat Bish­op, Ly­di­an Singers sang lusti­ly.

Among those who joined the high-pro­file mourn­ers was re­tired Span­ish teacher at Ari­ma Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School, Beryl Al­mar­ales. "We were friends from young," she said. Boast­ing that he was Al­lum's cad­dy, George Grif­fith re­mem­bered he taught him to hone his golf­ing skills at Mac­queripe. Wheel­chair-bound At­ta Ku­ju­fi said: "We were both ad­mit­ted to the Bar in 1966. We worked on var­i­ous cas­es like the mutiny. I will miss my friend."