The following eulogy was delivered by prof. Gus John on March 18th, 2008, at St. Augustine’s Church, in London, where the the funeral mass was held.

I extend greetings and condolences to Corinne, Dian-Marie, Michel, Claudia and to Trevor’s siblings and their children who have come from the USA and elsewhere. Today we mourn the passing of a loving husband, father, brother, uncle, friend and comrade.

With Trevor’s passing, we have lost yet another stalwart of that postwar generation who had had a life experience with Britain in the West Indies before relocating to these islands; those who came between 1945 and 1960 and helped to define the contours of the relationship between Britain and that surplus pool of labour which it was importing from its former colonies to help restore its infrastructure and its economy after two devastating World Wars.

Trevor Clarence Carter was born on 9 October 1930 in Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, the eldest of Elene and Clarence Carter’s twelve children. Father, Clarence, was a cabinet maker and mother, Elene, a housewife. Humble and dignified folk, they placed a premium on education and on character building. Good manners, good breeding, what you might call ‘proper broughtupcy’ mattered to them even more than educational qualifications. Therefore, as soon as he could drink water, as the old people used to say, the little toddler was sent to Beryl McBurnie’s Nursery School and then on to the African Methodist Episcopal (Akal) Primary School. His primary schooling induced a love of reading and his parents encouraged him to read extensively.

That stood him in good stead when he joined J Edgar Moore’s modern secondary school. Moore had been a master at Queens Royal College but broke away from QRC, believing it to be too elitist and not progressive enough, despite its unquestioned reputation. Read the rest of this entry →