STATEMENT BY SIR RONALD SANDERS HIGH COMMISSIONER TO THE UK ON THE PASSING OF TIM HECTOR

I received the news of Tim Hector’s passing with deep sadness.

We were on opposite sides of the political divide in Antigua and Barbuda. These conflicting positions led us to sometimes take public positions against each other. Despite this, we had a mutual respect and a friendship that endured to the end.

We had talked by telephone just over a week ago on the day before he left Cuba to return home. He said then that he knew all was not well.

Nonetheless, the news of his death has created in me a physical numbness. I feel his death within my soul.

It is as if with his passing, an important dimension of Antigua and Barbuda life has been extinguished. This colossal thing, so impressive, so essential is there no more. The shock of it is immobilizing.

Antigua and Barbuda has lost a great mind, a fearless fighter and a fine writer.

Few people in the world have the breadth of intellectual curiosity and prowess of Tim Hector. Even fewer combine the range of interests he so actively pursued – history, poetry, literature, politics, and sport particularly cricket. From Antigua, Tim made an impact on a much wider community in the Caribbean, Africa and North America that defied the constraining smallness of his country and celebrated the expansive wideness of his mind.

He was not a Saint. No man is. But, he was a powerful personality in his time in Antigua and Barbuda and a phenomenal influence upon its social, cultural and political life. The Government should consider an appropriate permanent memorial to his many contributions.

Antigua and Barbuda has lost a shining light. But in weeping for him, we should remember his example of courage, fortitude and intellectual excellence. These things will never die.

I mourn his passing as I would a brother.