December 2010


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Pioneer of public service

Doddridge Alleyne had known that The University of the West Indies had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, before he passed away on October 8, just 20 days before the official ceremony. Professor Bridget Brereton has written something of the man, whose achievements were phenomenal.

By Professor Bridget Brereton

Doddridge Alleyne, who died on October 8, 2010, just weeks before he was to receive an honorary degree from UWI, St Augustine, was born in Charlotteville, Tobago, in 1927. This fishing village on the north coast of the smaller ‘twin island’ of the then British colony of Trinidad & Tobago was remote and isolated at the time (and for long after), separated by a long and difficult journey from the little island capital, Scarborough, and almost impossibly distant from the colonial capital, Port of Spain.

The boy went to Charlotteville Methodist School; like many Tobagonians, he was brought up in the Methodist church, a denomination traditionally of great influence in the island. He went to Trinidad for his secondary education, attending a private school in Port of Spain, where his academic promise was recognised, and he attended Queen’s Royal College, the premier boys’ school, to study for his Higher School Certificate in the mid-1940s. Nearly sixty years later, in 2003, he was inducted into the Queen’s Royal College Hall of Honour, a tribute bestowed on very eminent ‘Old Boys’.

After working in the public service for some time, Alleyne received a Colonial Development and Welfare scholarship which took him to the hallowed halls of Oxford University, reading for the famous ‘PPE’ – Philosophy, Politics and Economics – at Balliol College, acquiring the BA and MA degrees. In 1958, he submitted to Balliol a thesis of well over 400 pages, which has now, fifty years later, been published. His alma mater recognised his distinguished career in 1999 by making him an Honorary Fellow of Balliol.

Straight out of school, the young Alleyne joined the colonial civil service, working through the era of decolonisation and independence, giving forty years of selfless and distinguished service. With the assumption of power by the People’s National Movement led by Eric Williams in 1956, and especially after independence in 1962, he became one of a small group of dedicated public servants who worked with the government to lay the foundations of the modern state and economy. Their salaries were small and their perks were few; they worked with a notoriously mercurial leader; their hours were long and irregular, and family life was often sacrificed to the demands of public service.

Alleyne was one of the most outstanding members of this group. He rose to the top of the heap, serving as Permanent Secretary in the three crucial Ministries: Petroleum & Mines, Finance, Planning & Development, and then as Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister and Head of the Public Service. In all these positions, he was central to remaking Trinidad & Tobago in the 1960s and 1970s, and he worked very closely with Williams.

Alleyne was one of the founders of the nationally owned energy sector which has done so much to shape the modern economy. With little directly relevant training, and few blueprints to follow, he led the 1968 negotiations which led to the purchase of the gas stations belonging to British Petroleum, and the subsequent creation of NP. Then with the start of the oil boom in 1973-74, Alleyne led negotiations for the purchase of Shell Trinidad and the creation of TRINTOC to manage Shell’s assets. After Williams’ death, he was at it again in 1985, when he participated in the purchase of TEXACO Trinidad -- the largest oil producer and refiner in the country – and TESORO. It was entirely fitting that during the commemoration of the centenary of commercial oil production in Trinidad & Tobago (2009), Alleyne was recognised as a ‘Pioneering Hero’ for his work in these negotiations, and more generally, for his efforts to bring about national control of the country’s petroleum industry.

He also led the discussions which led to the purchase of the local branch of the Bank of London & Montreal, and the subsequent creation of the National Commercial Bank, owned by the government, in 1970 – the forerunner of today’s First Citizens. In carrying out these complex negotiations, and for other purposes, Alleyne travelled the world pursuing his country’s interests, often in very difficult circumstances.

Working with Williams was never easy, and Alleyne was perhaps the most distinguished member of that coterie of senior public servants who surrounded him, to fall victim to his often inexplicable bouts of anger and vindictiveness. This eminent and manifestly honourable man, Head of the Public Service, was accused in 1975-76 of serious infractions of public service rules, interdicted by the Public Service Commission, put on three-quarters salary, and told to prepare for a formal hearing by a special tribunal. When the tribunal was finally convened, all the charges against him were suddenly dropped. Alleyne had been exonerated and returned to work; but Williams never spoke to him again, and he remained in the proverbial wilderness for several years to come.

In the last year of Williams’ life, he gave permission for Alleyne to serve as a United Nations Petroleum Adviser to the Government of Kenya (1980-82). Here he drew on his experiences at home in establishing the framework and structure of the National Oil Company of Kenya. This international exposure helped to prepare him for the major assignment given to him (after Williams died) by the PNM government of George Chambers: to serve as his country’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1983-88). Here he sat on the Security Council for a term and actually presided over that body for brief periods in 1985 and 1986. He also chaired the Committee on the Arms Embargo against South Africa in the dying years of the apartheid regime. As Chairman of the Committee of Non-Aligned Countries, he helped to craft a Resolution on the Iraq-Iran war, which eventually led to the end of the conflict. His years at the UN representing his country certainly marked a fitting conclusion to his career in the public service. No one could question his claims to one of the nation’s highest awards, the Chaconia Medal (Gold), for ‘long and meritorious service to Trinidad & Tobago’.

Doddridge Alleyne always showed a keen interest in UWI. For several years after his retirement, he was an Honorary Fellow at SALISES, St Augustine, and participated in many of its activities. Fittingly, his Oxford thesis has now been co-published by the UWI Press and SALISES. His posthumous book, Export/Import Trends and Economic Development in Trinidad, 1919-1939, will be launched by SALISES on December 6.

Photography by the Guardian Newspaper