Shridath Ramphal

Shridath Ramphal

Sir Shridath Surendranath "Sonny" Ramphal, GCMG , AC , ONZ , QC (born October 3, 1928 in New Amsterdam , Guyana ) is a politician from Guyana and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations .

Life

After completing school at Queen's College in Georgetown , he first studied at King's College London and then law at the Law School of Harvard University . Following his admission in 1953, he worked as a lawyer . He was then assistant to the First Crown Attorney between 1954 and 1956 and then took on a position as Legal Draftsman for legislative procedures and was promoted as such in 1958 to Chief Legal Draftsman of the West Indies . He was then from 1959 to 1961 Second Crown Attorney and then Assistant to the First Crown Attorney of the West Indies. In 1965 he was elected member of the National Assembly of Guyana, of which he was a member until 1975. In addition, from 1965 to 1973 he was himself First Crown Attorney.

After Guyana's sovereignty from Great Britain on May 26, 1966, he became Minister of State in the Foreign Office . Ramphal was beaten Knight Bachelor for his services in 1970 . In 1972 he was appointed Secretary of State in the government of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham .

In 1975 he was elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations to succeed Arnold Smith . He held this office after being re-elected in 1980 and 1985 until he was replaced by Emeka Anyaoku in 1990.

He was then Chancellor of the University of Warwick from 1989 to 2002 . He was also Chancellor of the University of the West Indies until 2003 and at times of the University of Guyana .

Ramphal has received several awards, including Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and Companion of the Order of Australia . He also received the Jamaican Order of Merit and the Order of New Zealand .

Web links

• Shridath S. Ramphal in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• rulers.org (English)