Tribute delivered by Stephen Kangal at the funeral service held for the Late Horace Hollister Broomes on Tuesday 6th September 2022 at the Stanmore Avenue Seventh Day Adventist Church, POS
Presiding Pastor Clive Dottin, Members of the late Broomes family, Other Distinguished Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Let me first express my gratitude to Horace’s surviving wife, Sumita, for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye to my brother Horace.
Late Horace Broomes pictured with his wife of 51 years Mrs. Sumita Broomes
Horace you fought the good fight and triumphed against the many adversities you faced head on.
Well done to our estranged brother. Enter into the joy of your Master and Savior.
There is a special place reserved for you in God’s mansions for those who truly loved and served their fellowmen with distinction.
I send my condolences and condolences to the family who have suffered the loss of a very dear person, including his wife Sumita of 51 years.
Horace was a true friend, brother diplomat, fellow journalist and colleague in the T&T Diplomatic Service.
We both entered the world of work in 1962.
In my opinion, my late brother Horace lived a full, controlled, productive and satisfying life in service to the people of T&T abroad.
No canvas can be comprehensive, large and expansive enough to fully and adequately describe and detail his colorful, larger-than-life journey that began in Tobago, then Trinidad and then the world.
He was indeed a truly patriotic citizen of T&T.
We must celebrate today and for posterity his fullest life.
Life was not just a dash between the year of birth and the year of death for Horace.
It was a uniquely traveled road, a journey filled with challenges and successes.
We remember and remember his many achievements in journalism, academia, foreign policy and diplomacy, law, exemplary fatherhood, and community service organizations.
Paying tribute to Horace, I go back to 1963 when I first met him as a pioneering student at the UWI College of Arts and Science while living in Junction Box in Curepe.
His lifelong friend Michael Narine was also present.
Michael can’t be here today, but sends his condolences and condolences to the family.
In 1963 Horace was also sub-editor of the Evening News published by the Trinidad Guardian.
Horace was a Tobagonian by birth and was very proud of his Tobagonian roots.
Unlike many Tobagonians, the symbol of the Calcutta ship did not intimidate him. In fact, he married a girl from New Delhi and brought her to T&T using the Calcutta ship.
Recently I have been trying to break down the elements of Tobago’s unique, culturally diverse and special personality and have written about it.
Tobago has given the nation of T&T, among others, many distinguished and patriotic citizens, including two Prime Ministers, a Governor of the Central Bank, the Chief Justice, a head of the Public Service and the late Horace Broomes.
I admire the Tobagonian personality forged by the love of freedom, autonomy and true nationalism.
Horace possessed all the strength, physical attributes, commitment to excellent use of the English language, intellectual ability and ambition not to be limited by the challenges of isolation and the strong territorial imperative that a small Main Ridge mountain island like Tobago can impose. but that the marine environment can neutralize it.
But I move.
My first meeting with Horace in the Foreign Service was in September 1981 at our London High Commission at 42 Belgrave Square. I understand that he left 42nd Street in New York to take up the post at 42 Belgrave Square.
There he was Deputy High Commissioner under High Commissioner Eustace Seignoret.
I was sent to London as First Secretary in 1981 by the late George Chambers who succeeded the late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams who died in March 1981 with Sir Ellis Clarke as President.
I remember three things from Horace’s stay in London.
First, how carefully he took care to place me, Dr Winston Extavour, Bernard Weston and Dr Vincent Lasse as new officers in the High Commission in England then.
Second, Horace possessed a most attractive personality.
Sumita can attest to that.
It was a joy to see how easily he as a representative of T&T won so many English friends and influenced people of the T&T diaspora living in London and elsewhere.
There was that diode of friendliness emanating from Horace’s body language that made many people gravitate towards him in his official capacity and win many friends for T&T.
Horace was a most likeable person with an innate gift for writing the English language with precision, brevity and warm elegance.
In London, Horace used religious cricket matches as a means of diplomacy and contact with the High Commission. During his tenure links with our British diaspora were strengthened and renewed.
He encouraged field meetings with the Diplomatic Police, the Foreign Office, Trinidad and Imperial College.
What also stood out the most to me was his ambition to qualify as a lawyer before leaving London to return to Trinidad.
Although Horace had a slipped spine operation through the kindness of a T&T-based doctor in Cambridge, Dr Kevin Gangar, during the recovery period Horace continued to study relentlessly at home in the grounds of Hampstead Gardens in Golders Green to obtain his degree in Law.
I still remember Sumita setting up a makeshift desk on his bed to allow Horace to study with his back hurting.
That experience was terrifying to watch.
In conclusion, I say goodbye to my brother. You enriched the lives of many you touched.
The world was too small for your life’s pilgrimage to end as you would have liked.
Complete that journey before your Creator now.
But we are blessed to have met you and will cherish the vivid memories you have bequeathed to us.
RIP Brother and friend!
