It was with profound sorrow that the Caribbean Community ( CARICOM) Secretariat received the news of the passing of Sir Philip Manderson Sherlock on December 4, 2000 in Jamaica at the age of ninety-eight.
Sir Philip will be remembered for his firm belief in, and lifelong dedication to the education of the people of his beloved homeland, Jamaica, and of the entire Caribbean, for he believed that people at all levels of society could and would play an important role in the development of our Region.
The school children of our Region, in particular, are indebted to him for the school’s text “History of the West Indies”, which introduced generations to our history and culture and, coming at the time that it did, gave a West Indian interpretation of the events which shaped our Region and its peoples.
Throughout his life, Sir Philip remained committed to the development of our human resources, and played a major role in the growth and development of the University of the West Indies, particularly in the University’s Extra Mural Studies Department, where he served as its first Director from 1945 to 1959. In 1960, he was appointed pro-Vice Chancellor of the UWI and oversaw the birth of the Faculty of Engineering, and the Transformation of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture into the Faculty of Agriculture, both at St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago.
As Vice Chancellor of the University, Sir Philip opened several faculties at the Cave Hill Campus and was instrumental in the establishment of the Creative Arts Centre at the Mona Campus. He firmly believed that the creative arts and humanities played an integral role in the development of the Caribbean man and woman.
Sir Philip saw the University of the West Indies as a unifying force in Caribbean development. Indeed, he stated that “…the University represents a special kind of partnership between many peoples. It represents a West Indian effort at collaboration that is in direct opposition to the fragmentation and divisions imposed on the Region by the imperial rivalries of distant powers. It represents the cooperation of free peoples in a community whose history has been one of competition.”
Sir Philip’s contributions over the years were honoured by the awards conferred on him in his homeland, Jamaica by way of honorary doctorates and by the University of the West Indies when on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary in 1998, awarded him the Chancellor’s Medal for eminent and lasting service to the University, the first and to date the only time that Award has been conferred. Sir Phillip also enjoyed regional and international recognition. These include knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen of England, and for his sterling contribution to human resource development in the Caribbean, Sir Philip received the Community’s highest award, the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC).
The Staff of the Caribbean Community Secretariat express heartfelt sympathy to his family and to his wider family, the people of Jamaica and, indeed, the entire Caribbean. The Region is the poorer for his passing.
