Dear Editor,
On Friday 8th April, 2016, as soon as I arrived at the airport in Toronto, my daughter told me that Mr Chetram Singh, a family friend, soul-brother and above all a great son of Guyana, died peacefully in his home in Toronto, Canada, with his devoted wife, Jean, by his side and his most prized ‘possessions’, his sons and other family members around him.
Most compatriots in Guyana and the diaspora in Canada of the 1950-1960’s vintage will recall this unique, iconic professional in the field of Hospital Administration and his sterling contribution to the development of cricket, especially in Berbice as President of the Berbice Cricket Board as well as his unmatched contribution to religious and community development especially among the Hindus throughout Guyana and the province of Ontario in Canada.
Born in 1930, in a humble home in difficult circumstances in the Ogle sugar estate, Chetram Singh achieved such great heights by dint of his hard work that would put many of us then and most of us now, who are in much more favourable contexts, to shame or envy.
He excelled academically in Primary and Secondary schools. After a brief stint as a teacher and clerk in the Georgetown Public Hospital, he won a 4-year British Commonwealth scholarship to study Hospital Administration in the UK which he not only completed in record time (about two years) but he also won the prestigious Harding Medal for being the most outstanding graduate in Hospital Administration in 1957, in the then British Commonwealth.
On his return to Guyana, he rotated among the smaller hospitals and eventually became the Administrator of the Georgetown Public Hospital. He migrated to Canada in the early 1970’s, joined the Ontario Ministry of Health where he distinguished himself as an expert in hospital administration before becoming the Chief Operations Officer of the St Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ontario.
After retiring from the latter in the early 1990’s, he accepted a Consultancy
assignment with the Ministry of Health in Guyana which was funded by the IDB and which afforded him the opportunity to indulge, albeit briefly, his nostalgia of working and serving in Guyana.
Among the many legacies left by the late Chetram Singh are his well accomplished sons who are making their own excellent contributions to society in various fields , especially medicine, in Canada, Trinidad and Guyana; for example, Guyanese and Canadians are well aware of the outstanding work being done in the practice and teaching of medicine by Dr Narendra Singh, BSc, MBBS,FRCP, FAAP,FCCM, Chief of Staff of Humber River Hospital, one of, if not the most, modern hospital in Canada and Clinical Professor of McMaster University. Nar, as he is fondly called, also does yeoman work in hospitals in Guyana, does fundraising for sick children and teaches in the UG medical programme.
Yours faithfully,
Nowrang Persaud.
