Gail Alexan­der

It's of­fi­cial: The fu­ner­al of late for­mer head of state Arthur NR Robin­son will be on Thurs­day May 1 with­in a five-day pe­ri­od of mourn­ing be­tween April 29 to May 3.Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith yes­ter­day con­firmed Robin­son's fu­ner­al ser­vice will be held on May 1 at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, Port of Spain.That venue was cho­sen above the Trin­i­ty Cathe­dral and the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um.Grif­fith, chair­man of a plan­ning team, out­lined the pro­gramme for the five days.

A de­ci­sion is yet to be made on where Robin­son's body will lie in state for the first two days of the five-day pe­ri­od of mourn­ing–whether the Par­lia­ment at the Wa­ter­front cen­tre or the ro­tun­da of the Red House on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain. NA­PA was al­so be­ing con­sid­ered, but this was elim­i­nat­ed.Whichev­er venue is de­cid­ed, that as­pect of the pro­gramme will be on April 29 and Wednes­day April 30 from 6 am to 6 pm.

Guests, dig­ni­taries, of­fi­cials, and mem­bers of the pub­lic will be al­lowed to pay their re­spects by fil­ing past the flag-draped, un­opened cas­ket.Grif­fith said a state ec­u­meni­cal ser­vice will be held on the morn­ing of May 1 at NA­PA, pre­ced­ed by the pro­ces­sion of a Mil­i­tary Cortege along a route to be lined by mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices and uni­formed youth groups.In­vi­ta­tions are be­ing is­sued by the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry and of­fice of the Pres­i­dent.

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, the body will lie in state in the East­ern NA­PA lob­by un­til 3 pm.The body wil be air­lift­ed to To­ba­go by the T&T Air Guard. It will al­so lie in state at the Leg­isla­tive Cham­ber of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA), Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go, on Fri­day 2nd May, 2014 be­tween 6.00 am and 6.00 pm.Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day stat­ed con­sid­er­a­tion must be giv­en to the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of a suit­able lo­ca­tion for a State ceme­tery, as the fi­nal rest­ing place for de­ceased per­sons who have been ac­cord­ed State fu­ner­als.

King George V Memo­r­i­al Park on St Clair Av­enue, Memo­r­i­al Park at the cor­ner of Fred­er­ick Street and The Botan­i­cal Gar­dens have been sug­gest­ed as pos­si­ble lo­ca­tions for the State ceme­tery at which all Pres­i­dents, Prime Min­is­ters and for­mer hold­ers of these posts will be buried. It was not­ed that the Botan­i­cal Gar­dens may be the most ap­pro­pri­ate giv­en its pre­vi­ous use and its rel­a­tive­ly large area.

About a state fu­ner­al

In a state fu­ner­al the body is car­ried on a gun-car­riage, with full mil­i­tary ho­n­ours in­clud­ing a 21-gun salute and the body lies in state be­fore be­ing es­cort­ed to the place where the fu­ner­al ser­vice will be held. The na­tion­al flag is al­so placed over the cof­fin.A Cais­son or horse-drawn gun car­riage is used to car­ry the body of the de­ceased. A Ca­parisoned Horse or rid­er-less horse, with the boots of the de­ceased placed in the stir­rups turned to­wards the rear is al­so used.

Where the body will lie in state, a framed pho­to of the de­ceased will be placed along­side with a bou­quet of flow­ers, con­do­lence book and pen. In­vi­ta­tions will be colour cod­ed to make iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of cat­e­gories of guests eas­i­er and to as­sist with seat­ing.

De­tails of the fu­ner­al

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, the body will lie in State in the East­ern NA­PA lob­by un­til 3 pm.The body wil be air­lift­ed to To­ba­go by the T&T Air Guard. It will al­so lie in state at the Leg­isla­tive Cham­ber of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA), Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go, on Fri­day 2nd May, 2014 be­tween 6.00 am and 6.00 pm.

Fol­low­ing this, a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice in ho­n­our of Robin­son's life will be held on the morn­ing of May 3 in Scar­bor­ough, at a venue to be an­nounced fol­lowed by bur­ial at Scar­bor­ough Methodist Ceme­tery with full mil­i­tary ho­n­ours. The lo­ca­tion was cho­sen by Robin­son's fam­i­ly.