As we approach our 50th anniversary on August 31, 2012, in some of my previous articles I attempted to inform you of various events which transpired pre and post-independence. One of the most significant achievements on that historical occasion was the contribution during the transitional period of Queen’s Royal College (QRC) and St Mary’s College.

In the UK, the two universities – Oxford and Cambridge – are known as the Oxbridge Union. These two institutions of learning, for well over 500 years have been the bastion of not only the UK development, but by and large the former British Empire/ Commonwealth. Most of the leaders of the former empire were educated at these British institutions. The dominance of the two universities on almost every aspect of life in the United Kingdom, was responsible for severe criticisms from Lord Robins, who complained in the 1960’s about the Oxbridge monopoly quoted in, The Changing Anatomy of Britain. He complained of the dominance of a certain kind of intellectual elite – senior civil servants, barristers, diplomats, BBC executives and merchant bankers.”

Most of our distinguished scholars, many of them acquiring world class recognition are products of these outstanding institutions, that continue to hold their own in the world of academia. As the British High Commissioner to TT, Arthur Snell, correctly stated in his response to my article on June 11, 2012 – ‘UTT and UWI: Our Two Top Universities.’ Snell, himself an honours graduate of Oxford University stated: “With less than one percent of the world’s population, the United Kingdom has on the Chinese ratings, two of the top ten universities in the world (Oxford and Cambridge), or according to the Times’ ratings three Oxford, Cambridge and the Imperial College.” He went on to state that “the UK has nine of the top 20 in Europe – very good going after 600-odd years of existence.” Whether QRC or St Mary’s, in the north, and to some extent the southern colleges – the original St Benedict (now Presentation College) and Naparima were originally structured after these classical institutions, a similar pattern emerged not only in TT, but in most of the colonies of the former empire as Mr Snell again correctly stated in his response on June 13, 2012: “Several of these institutions have educated Trinidad and Tobago’s finest minds, and continue to do.”

Yet another British academic institution, the London School of Economics has been responsible for producing some very distinguished world figures, ranging from Pierre Trudeau (Canada), Wilfred Garth of the Deusche Bank, Michael Manley (Jamaica), and Senator Patrick Moynihan. At one time, LSE was the cradle of western socialism, and the comfort zone of radical thinkers over the past 100 years.

We have been fortunate to have in our midst QRC and St Mary’s in the North and St Benedict’s/Presentation and Naparima in the South. These national institutions have been responsible for providing our young nation with the human resources, that have been generally responsible for the successful transition from colonialism to independence. No easy task, as we sometimes, believe in our usual take everything for granted style! One only has to make a comparison with some of the other former colonial powers, for eg, the Belgian Congo, now the Republic of Congo, when King Leopold and his gang of exploiters delivered Independence to the then Congo under the late Patrice Lumumba. Out of a then population of approximately ten million Congolese, there were less than 20 university graduates. This was the perfect recipe for what ultimately transpired, and continued to prevail – not only in the Congo, but several other former colonies. Fortunately for us, with all the exploitation we endured from the “imperialist bastards”, as they were referred to by the chief servant TUB Butler, they gave us some of the finest educational institutions that any colonial territory could have desired.

At midnight on August 30, 1962, after the transfer proclamation was delivered by the Princess Royal, our first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, appropriately expressed on behalf of the new born nation, his appreciation and recognition of the British contribution “in spite of”. We awoke on August 31, 1962 to welcome our first Prime Minister, an island scholarship winner – QRC / Oxford; the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Rudranath Capildeo – QRC / University of London; the Chief Justice, Sir Hugh Wooding – QRC / Cambridge; our Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Patrick Solomon – island scholarship winner – St Mary’s / Dublin; author of the constitution, Sir Ellis Clarke – island scholarship winner – St Mary’s College, and London University our first Governor General-in- Waiting, Sir Solomon Hochoy – St Mary’s College.

Most of our senior public servants were sent to the UK, USA and Canada for further training, including our leaders in the protective services.

This foundation, after 50 years, whatever its deficiencies, has protected us from two attempts to unlawfully overthrow our democratic government, and saved us from the tragedies that have befallen so many other Commonwealth countries who obtained Independence before and after TT.



NB: In 1977, Oxbridge Union provided 86 percent of the senior officials (Deputy Secretary and above). From “The Changing Anatomy of Britain” Anthony Sampson.