From the IAC Archives
DID YOU KNOW THAT: The first East Indian to qualify as a medical doctor or physician was Dr. William Hewley Wharton (born 1869) who graduated in 1899; The first East Indian to qualify as a solicitor in British Guiana was Edward Alfred Luckhoo (1875-1959) who did so in 1899 having been articled to Neil Ross McKinnon K.C.; The first East Indian to graduate with an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University was Benjamin Alexander Saywack (1885-1956) who did so in 1907 as a student of Christ Church College; The first East Indian to qualify as a barrister-at-law in British Guiana was Joseph Alexander Luckhoo K.C. (1887-1949) who did so in 1912 The first East Indian to be ordained a Deacon of the Church of England in British Guiana was the Rev. Benjamin Masih Das (1865-1949), born Baboo Singh and baptized in 1883 at St. Swithin’s Church, who received holy orders in 1888; The first East Indian to play first class cricket for British Guiana was John Aloysius Veerasammy (1891-1945), who later qualified as a barrister-at-law in 1913; The first East Indian to score a first class century for British Guiana in Colonial cricket was Chatterpaul “Doocha” Persaud, born in 1906, who scored 174 against Barbados at Bourda in 1937 and shared in a fourth wicket partnership of 381 with his caption Peter Bayley (268), a record that still stands today in Guyana; The first East Indian from British Guiana to qualify as a dentist was Dr. Cheddi Jagan (19181997) who did so in 1943 as a graduate of North Western University, Chicago, Illinois, USA; The first person of mixed East Indian ancestry to own a sugar plantation in British Guiana was Manoel “Bulla” Vieira, the son of Manoel Vieira senior, a Portugese, and Bulleah, an indentured female from India, who owned Plantation Houston and whose descendants include Vanda Radzik and Anthony “Tony” Vieira; The first person of mixed East Indian ancestry to be appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana was Dr. Harold Lutchman; The first person of Indo-Guyanese origin to be appointed Commissioner of Police was Balram Raghubir; The first person of Indo-Guyanese origin to be appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force was Joseph Govinda Singh, now a retired Major General, in 1990. The first person of Indo-Guyanese origin to be appointed Governor of the Bank of Guyana was Dr. Gobind Ganga The first person of Indo-Guyanese origin to wholly own and publish a daily newspaper in Guyana is Glenn Lall, who publishes the Kaieteur News
Guyana Inc. - Issue 15 P.12