Author, physicist, educator and former ambassador Edward Ricardo Braithwaite, best known for his book, ‘To Sir With Love,’ passed away on Monday at age 104, according to the Associated Press (AP).
AP reported that Braithwaite’s companion, Ginette Ast, divulged that he had taken ill on Monday and died at the Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Maryland.
‘To Sir, With Love,’ his first and most famous book, was published in 1959. The autobiographical tale about how a West Indian who scolded, encouraged and befriended a rowdy, mostly white class of East End teens was a success and transformed into a film. Sydney Poitier played Braithwaite, renamed Thackeray in the 1967 release, and the pop star Lulu was featured as one of the students. The title song, performed on screen and on record by Lulu, became a No. 1 hit, AP said.
‘To Sir with Love’ was not only adapted to film, but dramatised by the BBC along with another of his novels, ‘Paid Servant.’
Braithwaite was also the author of several other works, including ‘A Kind of Homecoming,’ ‘Choice of Straws,’ ‘Reluctant Neighbours,’ ‘Honorary White’ and ‘Billingsly: The Bear with the Crinkled Ear.’
His authorship was not, however, only limited to fiction, as he also published scientific works like Molybdenum, published in 1994 and Lubrication and Lubricants, originally published in 1997.
Braithwaite was a Queen’s College student, who later attained a degree at the City College of New York and later became the holder of a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University.
President David Granger, on behalf of the government and people of Guyana, yesterday extended sympathy to Ast as well as other family members and friends of Braithwaite.
According to a release from the Ministry of the Presidency, Granger said Guyana deeply mourns the passing of Braithwaite, who “was an eminent Guyanese and distinguished diplomat….”
Al Creighton, in a Sunday Stabroek column on Braithwaite’s life and work to commemorate his 100th birthday in 2012, wrote that “Despite the highest level of his qualifications in Physics, he was unable to land a job in Britain. That was, to make things worse, in spite of his service to the United Kingdom as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He served for six years.”
Braithwaite’s years of experience as a teacher in notorious East End London would serve as inspiration for ‘To Sir with Love,’ which explored class and race relations.
Braithwaite also wrote on apartheid conditions in South Africa, leading to his publication being banned in the country. The ban was, however, eventually raised after he gained popularity and his visit to the region would later influence the writing of his novel ‘Honorary White.’
In 2012, Braithwaite was conferred with the Cacique Crown of Honour by then President Donald Ramotar for his outstanding contribution in the field of literature and effective service as a diplomat while in Guyana serving as patron of the Inter-Guiana Cultural Festival. Just a day prior, he had the privilege of once again seeing his work adapted and brought to life on stage, when ‘To Sir with Love’ was dramatised at the National Cultural Centre.
“I am surprised because I did not expect an award. I don’t know that I have done anything to deserve the award but, I am grateful for what the award represents,” the Government Information Agency reported Braithwaite as saying at the investiture ceremony.
Creighton noted that according to information from the National Library Guyana, Braithwaite was the Humans Rights Officer for World Veterans Foundation in Paris between 1960 and 1963, Lecturer and Education Officer with UNESCO between 1963 and 1966 and the first Guyanese to hold the post of Ambassador to the United Nations in 1967, leading to his election as President of the UN Council for South West Africa in 1968;
