Jus­tice Phillip Louis Ul­ric Cross is a hero. At yes­ter­day's launch of He­roes of a Na­tion, part three, ti­tled And Jus­tice For All, Cross was held in high es­teem by the High Com­mis­sion­er of Aus­tralia Philip Ken­twell and oth­ers who gath­ered at the Grand Riv­iere Room, Court­yard Mar­riott Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain.

The He­roes Foun­da­tion, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Aus­tralian High Com­mis­sion and Wors­ley­Par­sons Trinidad launched the third is­sue of He­roes of a Na­tion in the form of a com­ic book de­pict­ing the life and sto­ry of Cross. Cross, 95, was ab­sent from the func­tion.

The com­ic book, a free pub­li­ca­tion, is set over the skies of Ger­many in May 1944 and at­tempts to raise aware­ness among young peo­ple of Trinidad's most dec­o­rat­ed Roy­al Air Force pi­lot in World War II.

Chair­man of the foun­da­tion, Philip Julien said, "The true sto­ry con­tained in this pub­li­ca­tion that high­lights var­i­ous as­pects of his life, sim­ply cor­rob­o­rate to me what I al­ready know of the gen­tle­man-that he puts oth­ers be­fore self, that he puts all in­to what he does and that he does it all with a qui­et con­fi­dence that makes him seem si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly hum­ble and larg­er than life.

"And to me, makes him a true hero of the He­roes Foun­da­tion." Julien said even though Cross was not present, the foun­da­tion vis­it­ed him ear­li­er this week. He said he was the great en­abler of the foun­da­tion, hav­ing been chair­man of the ad­vi­so­ry board. The foun­da­tion cel­e­brat­ed its tenth an­niver­sary in Oc­to­ber. Ex­ec­u­tive chair­man, Ann Marie Nar­ine de­scribed Cross as "a son of the soil" and "pa­tri­ot."

About Cross

Cross was born on May 1, 1917. Among his ac­co­lades and mer­its are:

• Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T

• Or­der of Val­our Fed­er­al Re­pub­lic of Cameroon

• Air Crew Eu­rope Star, UK 1934/45

• Judge of the High Court of Tan­za­nia 1967/68

• Judge of the High Court, T&T

• Judge of the Ap­peal Court, T&T