Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5394/-1/131/
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Prominent Anguillian Conferred Honorary Doctorate
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Recently, Dame Bernice Lake, Q.C., was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from the University of the West Indies, Cape Hill Campus, Barbados, conferred at the 2007 Graduation Ceremony. The significance of this honour is impossible to describe in this short article; however, suffice it to say that it may be like getting into Heaven before your time and having an opportunity to stand at the foot of your society and hear praise for lifetime achievements and merit.
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Dame Bernice Lake and Chancellor Sir George Alleyne
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In this case, the praise formally and joyously was delivered by the High University Chancellery. Notably, Honorary Doctorate Degrees only come to the most humble yet acclaimed individuals, who have also demonstrated scholastic excellence in their professional life, while maintaining exemplary ethical standards in every aspect of their existence. Over the years, others so honoured by the University of the West Indies have included Haile Selassi I of Ethiopia, H.M. Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother (Hon D Litt) and General Colin Powell (LLD).
In this instance, the High University Chancellery was seemingly gushing with enthusiasm regarding this bestowal and rolled out the royal carpet with demonstrable warmth, accolades and affection. Dame Bernice was honoured and humbled and nearly overwhelmed, as she was surrounded by her loving family, friends and many Eastern Caribbean jurisprudence colleagues and collaborators from both her early professional years and more recent endeavours.
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Dame Bernice Lake after receiving her formal Citation
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The graduation festivities began with an on-campus banquet in honour of the four Honorary Graduands, Sir Courtney Blackman, Mr. Geoffrey Cave, Dame Bernice Lake, and His Excellency, Dr. Nicholas Liverpool. The dinner was hosted along with remarks and congratulations offered by Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor, and Professor Hilary Beckles, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principle. Dame Bernice had been invited to speak on behalf of the four Honorary Graduands. (Those remarks will be published at a later date.) In short, Dame Bernice moved and inspired her esteemed audience, as evidenced by the standing ovation at the close of her remarks.
The dinner began with a cocktail gathering, where old friends and acquaintances from the West Indies and around the world gathered in recognition of the four honourees. All paused and made a path for His Excellency, Dr. Nicholas Liverpool, President of Dominica, to be the first to greet Dame Bernice Lake upon her arrival. This black-tie affair was remarkable in many senses, but the tuxedoes and stunning ladies’ attire might have been mistaken for a gathering of fashion designers instead of reputedly reserved academics. The banquet room was elegantly decorated with tall, stately vases of tropical flowers, and refined linens, silver and goblets. The banquet was served with majestic style and precision timing by cordial servers. It was by all accounts a most delightful evening that ended only minutes after midnight.
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The Cape Hill Campus Graduation Ceremonies, University of the West Indies, 2007.
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Early the next day, an entourage of friends and family ventured over to The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, to view the display of mementos highlighting the achievements of the four honourees. The display is intended to commemorate the works and contributions of the Honorary Graduands and to inspire the students, faculty and administration as they routinely enter the focal point of high academics the University Library. This display will remain throughout the upcoming academic year as a reminder to all who pass that service and achievement begins with early academics followed by a lifelong commitment to public and universal good.
The graduation activities began in a private room, where the commencement regalia were donned. The Honorary Doctorates’ were robed by the University officials in keeping with their newly acquired honours depicted by the unique colors the gowns, hoods and mortarboards. So adorned, Dame Bernice was especially radiant in the procession, as she made her way to a seat of distinction on the auditorium dais near the Chancellor. The graduation ceremony started with the Chancellor’s address, the Vice-Chancellor’s report and then the conferment of Honorary Degrees. Then, the University Public Orator, Dr. Henry Fraser, read the “Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa” of the University of the West Indies citation for Dame Bernice Lake. The moving rendition of her notable achievements was also a personal acknowledgment, because Dr. Fraser had also known her for many years. He proudly remarked that Dame Bernice was a graduate of the University of the West Indies, the first female West Indian to “take silk” as a Queens Counsel (QC), followed by a litany of notable accomplishments.
Her citation was followed by the honoris causa conferment on His Excellency, Dr. Nicholas J. O. Liverpool, the democratically elected President of Dominica. Notably, Dr. Fraser praised “His Excellency” for his judicial and jurisprudence scholarship as well as being a man of and for the people of the West Indies. Then, Chancellor Sir George Alleyne called upon His Excellency to address the company and deliver his Commencement Address. In his address, His Excellency was moved to tell the company that this University of the West Indies honoris causa degree was his most cherished honour.
Following the commencement address, the eight hundred or so remaining graduating students were appropriately called to the chair and presented their diplomas. The graduating students were gloriously recognized with every possible measure of splendour and celebration. Then, with newly minted diplomas in hand, the graduating class, including Dame Bernice Lake honoris causa, joined the Chancellor’s recession ending the ceremony.
Exuberant congratulations and photo taking followed the formal graduation ceremony, as High University Chancellery, friends and family gathered around Dame Bernice, His Excellency, Dr. Liverpool and Chancellor Sir George Alleyne. It was a very special milestone not only for Dame Bernice, but also for Anguilla, represented by this accomplishment, as well.
Finally, it seems fitting that this story would close by updating the title of Anguilla’s newest “Doctor”: Dame Bernice V. Lake, DGCN, Q.C., B.A. Hons., LLB (Lond.) Hon. LLD (UWI).
The following is the Citation on the occasion of the award of an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws of the UWI, at the Graduation Ceremony, Cave Hill Campus, October 27th, 2007
Dame Bernice Lake
Chancellor, among the most memorable songs of the sixties is one from South Pacific. Oscar Hammerstein’s immortal song “There is nothing like a dame”. And it is my proposition, in today’s Court of Appeal, that not only is there nothing like a dame, but that there is no dame like Dame Bernice Lake, QC. For however we define dame, and my Oxford Dictionary has 9 definitions, Dame Bernice is the epitome of a lady, of a ruler, a knight and a person of great honour.
Bernice Lake was born in Anguilla on the 28th of December, in a year which it would be irresponsible and ignoble of me to reveal. She was educated in Anguilla and St. Kitts, since in those days Anguilla was joined in federation with St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Kitts was the metropolis and “Federal Capital.” She proceeded to the then very new University College of the West Indies in Jamaica, graduating with a History Honours Degree, and was recruited to the Diplomatic Service of the Federation of the West Indies. I can conceive no better diplomat, for she would have scaled the greatest heights.
But on the collapse the tragic collapse of the Federation, Miss Lake, like a number of other distinguished Federal civil servants, pursued a law degree at University College London described in 1826 as “That Godless institution on Gower Street,” where the embalmed body of its philosopher founder, Jeremy Bentham, sits in a cabinet and greets his students in the great hall every day. I was privileged to meet her there in 1964, as a humble freshman, while she was a Queen of the Students Union and as I remember her, she brought real class to that ferment of student agitation, in days of anti-apartheid and other student protests.
She earned an Honours Degree in Law, was called to the Bar exactly 40 years ago, and became the first woman in the Eastern Caribbean and the first UWI graduate to be elevated to the rank of Queen’s Counsel, or as the lawyers say in their unique language “Law-speak” the first woman to “take silk.”
Chancellor, Dame Bernice is described by her colleagues as a brilliant combination of beauty and brains with a sharp mind and indomitable spirit. Her career is distinguished by two major themes: commitment to securing a climate of constitutionalism in her region, and to the protection of human rights and women’s rights. She was chief architect of the Anguilla Constitution in 1975 and a member of the team which framed the Constitution of her sister country, Antigua and Barbuda, in 1981. And she spawned a group called Justice Corps a free legal service in the Leewards as a protection of the rights of the people, because she has so often defended those rights of the ordinary and often disenfranchised citizens of these islands.
Dame Bernice understands that although constitutionally Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory, it is a different society to the imperial power, and requires its own definition of its identity.
Chancellor, the name Lake is linked so closely with Anguilla, St. Kitts and Antigua, that while Antigua has often been called Bird Island, the entire archipelago of the northern Antilles might well be called Lakeland, where that part of the Caribbean sea is seen as just a lake, and Dame Bernice makes her home on both sides of the larger lake, between Anguilla and Antigua. And so it is no surprise that her legacy in Antigua has just been established in stone, with the opening of her new chambers a splendid building, replacing a historic building destroyed by fire.
At the dedication ceremony she wished “her people” to know that these Chambers are their Chambers, not hers, and she emphasized the need to address the plight of the weak against the powerful. In her words: “36 Long Street symbolizes a permanent aspect of our need for attorneys to be independent, fair-minded, vigilant and wise.” As your nominee on University Council, Chancellor, I have no doubt that she will bring these virtues and skills into the Council and will work to make the Open Campus a huge success and of great service to the people of her country Lakeland.
And so Chancellor, I end where I began: there is no Dame like Dame Bernice Lake, QC diplomat, jurist, constitutional lawyer and tenacious advocate for justice and it gives me the greatest pleasure to invite you, on behalf of the Council and Senate of this university, to confer on her the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.