Miles Greeves Fitzpatrick was born on the 12th January, 1936. His parents were the late Maxwell and Millicent Fitzpatrick. He was the brother of the late Eileen Bhola, the husband of Sultana Fitzpatrick, the father of Ron Garry Fitzpatrick and the grandfather of Zoe and Michael. He passed on the 12th March, 2019, at the age of 83, after a short period of declining health but during which he remained engaged and lively. I joined a few mutual friends, his family and some relatives at his home in celebration of his 83rd birthday in January.
Miles was born in Queenstown, Georgetown and attended Queen’s College. After High School, he graduated as a lawyer in 1956 and was called to the British Guiana Bar in January, 1957, following the footsteps of his father, who was a Solicitor and Magistrate. He entered private practice and joined the Peoples’ Progressive Party, an unusual step for a product of the Georgetown middle class. He was active in politics in the pre-Independence 1960s.
His unusual political allegiance was inspired by the well-known Jamaican-British left wing political and labour activist, Billy Strachan, a lawyer, who profoundly influenced radical political developments in several Caribbean countries, but particularly, Jamaica and Guyana, from the late 1940s until the 1990s. About a decade after Miles, I also came under the tutelage of Billy Strachan, who had a similar, but more lasting, influence on the political direction I took. I never thought to ask Miles how he met Billy, and it is now an unsolved mystery. I was placed under Billy’s political care by my father.
