ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The former governor of St. Kitts-Nevis and Anguilla, Sir Fred Phillips, was laid to rest yesterday following his death three weeks ago.
Sir Fred, who was also a prominent regional jurist, was eulogized as someone whose wise counsel was instrumental in preventing the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis from breaking up during its worst constitutional crisis in the 1990s.
“It was because of the authority that he commanded in constitutional law that my government reached out to him once again in 1997 several years after he had retired as governor of the state of St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla, we reached out to him as chairman of the St Kitts and Nevis constitutional commission and the constitutional task force of 1998,” St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas said at the state funeral.
“I remember it was the time of our greatest constitutional test, and the government and people of St Kitts and Nevis sought Sir Fred’s solomonic wisdom, his constitutional authority and his practical experiences of the St. Kitts and Nevis administrative and constitutional landscape. Today we remain one federation, one country and one people.”
Born in St Vincent, Sir Fred spent his last years in Antigua where he died on February 20, age 92. (CMC)
