A special sitting of the High Court will be held next Tuesday, May 11, beginning at 9 am in honour of the late Queen’s Counsel Parnel Randolph Campbell, who died on Monday, April 19 at the age of 75 years. [caption id=
Special sitting of High Court to be held for Campbell
PR Campbell with his family in 2017. From left: Bantu, Arusha, Alpha, Juliette (wife), PR, Denise, Mandella and Daniel. Social Share
A special sitting of the High Court will be held next Tuesday, May 11, beginning at 9 am in honour of the late Queen’s Counsel Parnel Randolph Campbell, who died on Monday, April 19 at the age of 75 years.
A collage of PR Campbell with members of staff of P.R. Campbell & Co.
Two days later, on Thursday, May 13, Campbell, a former deputy prime minister under the James Mitchell administration of the New Democratic Party will be laid to rest, following a State Funeral at the Kingstown Methodist Church.
Parnel ‘PR’ Campbell A Tribute from the New Democratic Party
Acting Prime Minister Parnel Campbell (right) at the Independence Parade in 1994. From left are: The Governor General’s ADC Bernard Marksman (PR’s brother), Governor General Sir David Jack and Deputy Commissioner of police Leopold Stoddard. Social Share
Mr Parnel Campbell, QC affectionately called ‘PR’ was a long-standing senior member of the legal profession in St Vincent and the Grenadines and the OECS. He was well-known as a lawyer and politician throughout the Caribbean.
PR Campbell was a true nation builder. He contributed to national development in many ways and will be remembered as a man whose life exemplified a commitment to public service. He did so as a politician, as a political commentator and as a vocal champion of the rule law and of public order.
Parnel R Campbell: Outstanding servant of the people
Black Power March in the early 1970s. PR Campbell is 4th from left in the front row Social Share
INTRODUCTION
Parnel R Campbell, who died on April 19, 2021, a few months shy of his 76th birthday, was my friend, my colleague and competitor in politics, a brother in the law, and a sage adviser. Our relationship spanned over 62 years. I first met Parnel when I entered the St Vincent Grammar School in January 1959; he had enrolled at our premier boys’ school a year or two earlier. Over the years, I followed with profound admiration the development of this extraordinary individual who was possessed of abundant blessings as: Scholar teacher, calypsonian, political and cultural activist, political organiser and strategist, leader of men and women, parliamentarian, lawyer, Attorney General, constitutional and legal reformer, public educator on the law, Christian gentleman of the Spiritual Baptist faith, servant of the pe
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Parnel was my close friend, perhaps my best friend at primary school in Barrouallie. He was then known as ‘PC’- Pernel Campbell. (I suspect that while preparing to take his entrance examination he realised that he was registered as Parnel, not Pernel). Parnel was very good with his hands as we would say. He made sling shots, tops and traps to catch ‘ground doves’. We went looking for tamarinds, rode scooters, played marbles and cricket on the beach. In fact, it is on one of those occasions I realised I could swim since he pushed me off the wharf and smiled as I swam shore. He was very adventurous and had an appealing sense of humour. We passed the School Leaving Certificate and the entrance examination to the Grammar School. Following an appeal by my teacher Olson Peters/ ‘Caribbean Pete’ I was kept back to do the scholarship examination. PR then went on to the Grammar School and lived with his mother and the rest of his family at Frenches. Bein