Court to pay tribute to fallen members

The legal fraternity will be paying tribute to stalwarts who recently passed away.

That’s the word from Chief Justice, Sir Marston Gibson, who made the disclosure during his address at the Special Sitting of the Supreme Court to mark the Commencement of the Law Term 2017-2018, as he indicated that they have planned a Special Sitting of the Supreme Court on October 20, 2017 in memory of long serving Director of
Public Prosecutions, Charles Leacock, who passed away in July at the age of 59.

“We have extended condolences to his widow Elizabeth ‘Betty June’ and two sons Donald and Brian. As if that was not bad enough, on Friday last, we learned of the passing of Theodore Walcott QC, a former magistrate, who also acted as a High Court Judge. We extend our condolences to his three sons, Terence, Ronald and Paul, and his brother-in-law, another member of our fraternity, Clement Lashley QC… Suffice it to say at this juncture that the judiciary of Barbados records its profound sorrow at their passing. May they rest in peace and rise in glory,” he stated.

According to Sir Marston, they will be contacting the relatives of Mr. Walcott to see whether October 20 is also convenient for them; if not, he indicated that they will set aside another date at which the Court will convene to remember Mr. Walcott.

Sir Marston also took the opportunity to remember former Dean of St. Michael’s Cathedral, the Very Rev. Dr. Frank Marshall. Dr. Marshall, he said, was a member of the Local Implementation and Reengineering Committees of the Court. The Chief Justice noted that Dr. Marshall gave of his wisdom and guidance at every meeting and ensured that they invoked the presence of the Almighty at the start of every meeting.

Those two Committees, he said, co-chaired by Justices William Chandler and Michelle Weekes, have been set up under the auspices of the JURIST Project, which is assisting the court with not just backlog reduction, but mapping and reengineering the processes in the Registration to speed up the movement of cases through the system.