Home News Ashton Chase, OE, SC, to be cremated on Friday
The farewell, tributes, and reflection ceremony in honour of the Peoples Progressive/ Civic’s (PPP/C’s) last founding member, Ashton Chase, are scheduled to be held on Friday, July 14, at 10:00h at Parliament Buildings. This will be followed by the cremation at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara at 13:00h.
Senior Counsel Ashton Chase, a legal luminary who was awarded Guyana’s highest national award – the Order of Excellence – passed away on Monday night, July 10, at the age of 96, just days before his 97th birthday.
Chase was renowned for making an exceptional contribution to Guyana’s nationalist struggle and political history, and was the last surviving member of the Political Affairs Committee (the forerunner to the People’s Progressive Party) which was established in 1946.
He was the husband of Deborah; father of Ronald, Serita and Pauline; and grandfather of Rianna, Ravenne, Rashaada, Rachel and Wade Ashton.
He was Guyana’s first Labour Minister in the 1953 Government. In his life as a trade unionist, quite apart from his activism, he wrote profusely on the historical evolution and importance of trade unionism in Guyana. Further, he advanced the cause of trade unionism by utilising his legal prowess in taking numerous trade union struggles into the halls of Justice, winning major victories for labour and the labour movement.
Chase served with distinction as Chairman of the Council of Legal Education of the West Indies for many years, and played an instrumental role in the automatic entry of the Bachelor of Laws graduates from the University of Guyana into the Hugh Wooding Law School of Trinidad and Tobago, a very controversial issue for many years.
He also led the Guyana Bar Association as its president during the riotous years of political dictatorship in Guyana, opposing the government of the day at a time when it was personally hazardous to do so.