Yvonne Ba­boolal

Out­go­ing pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) Michael de la Bastide, on his re­tire­ment, may turn to writ­ing about life in T&T in the 1940s and 1950s when he was a young boy.He said: "Some sug­gest­ed I should write and it seems an at­trac­tive idea. There's the se­ri­ous, heavy stuff and there are mem­oirs."I think I've reached an age where it would be a good idea to give a spec­trum of life in T&T in the '40s and '50s when I was a young boy."There were lots of in­ter­est­ing as­pects of life at that time."De La Bastide, 74, spoke to the me­dia af­ter a spe­cial sit­ting of the CCJ in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day to mark his re­tire­ment from of­fice.

He was pres­i­dent of the court since its in­cep­tion in 2004 and said for the first time he has re­al­ly re­tired.He added: "This is my first true re­tire­ment. I kin­da want to see what's it's like. That's nev­er hap­pened be­fore."De la Bastide said short­ly af­ter he re­tired as chief jus­tice in 2002 he took up the job of CCJ pres­i­dent.He said he did not have any re­tire­ment plans but would see what he could do that was use­ful and en­joy­able and not drudgery.Yes­ter­day was his last work­ing day at the CCJ. His last of­fi­cial day will be on Au­gust 18 and he will be re­placed as CCJ pres­i­dent by Sir Den­nis By­ron on Sep­tem­ber 1.By­ron is the for­mer chief jus­tice of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of East­ern Caribbean States and pres­i­dent of the In­ter­na­tion­al Court Tri­bunal of Rwan­da.

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Michael de la Bastide's pro­file

• Born Ju­ly 18, 1937.

• At­tend­ed Ox­ford Col­lege from 1956 to 1960.

• Ap­point­ed Queen's Coun­sel Jan­u­ary 1975.

• In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor from 1976 to 1981.

• Pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion from 1987 to 1990.

• Ap­point­ed chief jus­tice in May 1995.

• Award­ed the Trin­i­ty Cross in Au­gust 1996.

• Elect­ed hon­orary bencher of Gray's Inn in No­vem­ber 1996.

• Sworn in as a mem­ber of the Privy Coun­cil on Ju­ly 27, 2004.

• Sworn in a pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice in April 2005.

• Mar­ried to Si­mone, nee Mor­gan. They have two chil­dren, Chan­tal and Chris­t­ian.

• Pre­vi­ous­ly mar­ried to Mar­i­an, nee Gould. There are three chil­dren from that mar­riage, Michele, Juli­et and Si­mon.