ANGUILLA HAS LOST A LEGAL LUMINARY AND STALWART

Dame Dr. Bernice Lake, Q.C.

Family and friends from Anguilla will be among the large gathering in Antigua. Dame Bernice lived there for many years, as a second home, and contributed greatly to that community, to the extent that she was awarded the prestigious title of Dame, by the Government there, in recognition of her services.

Dame Bernice Lake, Q.C. (centre sitting) with Legal Fraternity at the Special Court Sitting on July 22, 2011

In Anguilla, where Dame Bernice was born, and eventually retired, there will be a Memorial Service at St. Mary’s Anglican Church where she was a diligent worshipper. It will be held on Monday, September 19, commencing at 3:00 p.m.That service will be conducted by Rev. Menes Hodge in the absence of Bishop Brooks who is expected to be in Aruba.
Dame Bernice, 78, died at Mount St. John Medical Centre in Antigua on Saturday, September 10, where she was receiving treatment, after travelling to that island from Anguilla. A state funeral has been accorded her by the Antigua Government.

Dame Bernice accompanied by her brother Dr. Cuthbert Lake

Her passing was marked by a flood of tributes which poured in from the Caribbean region and beyond. In Anguilla there were official tributes from His Excellency Governor, Alistair Harrison, who ordered the flying of flags at half mast on Government buildings; the Government of Anguilla, the Anguilla United Front and the Anguilla Bar Association.

It was onlyon July 22 this year that the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court held a special sitting in Anguilla, along with the Anguilla and OECS Bar Associations and others, and paid glowing tribute to Dame Bernice on her formal retirement.

The brochure for the grand reception and dinner on her retirement provided many of her biographical details. She was the daughter of George E. Lake and Ellen Augusta Lake of Tanglewood. At the age of 10, she re-located to St. Kitts where she attended school. After graduating from the Girls High School, she taught English, Latin and History. Three years later she attended the University College of the West Indies in Jamaica (now the University of the West Indies) and graduated with an Honours Degree in History. On her return to St. Kitts she continued her teaching and was later recruited to the Diplomatic Service of the Federation of the West Indies.

In 1964 she entered the field of law and graduated in 1967 with a law degree from the University College of London, following which she was called to the St. Kitts Bar. The write-up in the brochure stated that Ms. Lake’s “history is interwoven with the history of Anguilla. Her first three years out of law school were Anguilla’s first three years of secession from St. Kitts-Nevis. After those three years in which she honed her legal skills in tense and volatile circumstances, as an Anguillian living and working in a country which her native country had just rejected, she moved to Antigua and joined the Chambers of Cosmos Phillips with whom she worked for about one year. In April 1971 she boldly hung up her shingle and never looked back.”
The rest of biographical notes continued as follows: “Dame Bernice Lake’s career [was] distinguished by two major themes: commitment to securing a climate of constitutionalism in her region, and the protection of human rights and women rights. She was the chief architect of the Anguilla Constitution in 1975 and a member of the team which framed the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda in 1981. She has always been very active in her communities of Anguilla, Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis. She spearheaded Justice Corps in Anguilla, Antigua and St. Kitts and Nevis which provided free legal service to safeguard against constitutional violation of the peoples of those territories.

“Dame Bernice Lake’s history is also tied to the history of Antigua as almost everyone remembers that in 1981, on the first working day after the Independence holiday, she applied to have the son of a leading politician committed to prison for ignoring a four-year civil judgment. Her history became the history of the Caribbean Indies when in 1985 she was appointed Queens Counsel, becoming the first female in the Eastern Caribbean and, by all accounts, the first University of the West Indies graduate to be elevated to “take silk” as a Queens Counsel (QC).

“In 2004, at the 23rd Anniversary of Independence, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the legal field, her stance on women issues, civil and political rights and her personal integrity, conferred upon the then Miss Bernice Lake, QC, the prestigious title of Dame. On that occasion she was quoted as saying: ‘while a person does a particular work because of a feeling of being driven to do it, any public appreciation for work honestlyand sincerely done is always appreciated.’

“On October 27, 2007, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. This distinction is granted to acclaimed individuals who have also demonstrated scholastic excellence in their professional life, while maintaining exemplary ethical standards in every aspect of their existence.”

The biographical notes added that although Dame Lake’s beloved Anguilla was constitutionally “a British Overseas Territory, it is a different society to the imperial power, and requires its own definition of its identity and she has worked tirelessly to this end.”