At the launch of activities marking 150 years of President’s House and 50 years of the Presidency of the Republic, President Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT reflected on the enduring strength of the Office of the President and paid heartfelt tribute to the staff whose quiet dedication has sustained the institution across five decades.
Highlighting the importance of memory, service and national unity, she described their contribution as central to the story of Trinidad and Tobago’s republican journey.
Read her full address below:
𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐨 𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐓, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏𝟓𝟎 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭’𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟓𝟎 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲
Good morning.
Permit me, first, to thank the representatives of our nation’s religious traditions who have led us today in prayer, reflection and thanksgiving. I also thank the Inter-Religious Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago for its generous contribution to this service, and for helping us to begin this commemorative year in the right spirit.
I am very pleased to welcome all of you here today. I am especially happy that former First Ladies, and the children and relatives of former Presidents, have joined us for this occasion. Your presence means a very great deal. You remind us that the Presidency is not just about the persons who take the oath. It is also about the families, the households, the friendships and the networks of love that sustain them.
Today, we mark two important anniversaries. We mark 150 years since the construction of President’s House. And we mark 50 years since Trinidad and Tobago became a Republic, and the President replaced the British Monarch as our Head of State.
These anniversaries invite us to look back. But more than that, they require us to look carefully and properly.
For when people look at this Office from the outside, they often see the President. They see the ceremony, the motorcades, the protocol, the speeches, the uniforms, the flags, the formal rooms and the public duties. But those who have lived and served inside this Office know a deeper truth – that the Office of the President has never been sustained by the President alone.
It has been sustained by the men and women who open the gates, prepare the rooms, protect the grounds, cook the meals, drive the cars, keep the records, write the letters, arrange the ceremonies, polish the silver, maintain the gardens, answer the calls, guard the House, guide the guests, support the family and keep the dignity of the Office intact, day after day.
Across the last 50 years, the staff of this Office — civilian and military — have served seven Presidents, from our first President to the present. Presidents have changed. Families have changed. Times have changed. The country has changed. But through all of that change, the staff of the Office of the President have remained faithful to a standard of service which deserves the gratitude of the whole Republic.
Today is therefore not merely a staff recognition ceremony. It is an act of national gratitude.
It is a day on which we say, clearly and publicly, that the story of the Presidency of Trinidad and Tobago is as much your story as it is the story of any President who has occupied this Office.
President may sign instruments, receive Ambassadors, address the nation and perform the solemn duties of Head of State. But no President can do any of these things well if the House does not function, if the Office does not hold together, if security is not assured, if protocol fails, if the family has no peace, or if the staff do not bring care, competence and pride to their work.
A President stands in front. But very often, the true strength of the Presidency stands quietly behind the curtain.
And today, we draw that curtain back.
We do so not to embarrass anyone — although I suspect that some of you would much rather remain safely in the background — but to honour you. We honour the calm hands, the careful eyes, the steady feet, the watchful hearts and the loyal spirits that have carried this Office through five decades of republican life.
I have seen this for myself.
Since I assumed office in March 2023, I have witnessed the commitment of the staff of the Office of the President in large matters and small ones. I have seen it in national ceremonies and in private moments. I have seen it in long hours, last-minute adjustments, quiet discretion, careful planning and the kind of service which asks for no applause, but without which nothing works.
And I have learned something important: institutions do not endure because of buildings alone. They endure because people bring honour to them.
President’s House is a beautiful and historic building. Its walls have witnessed colonial government, Independence, republican transformation, national ceremony, sorrow, celebration and renewal. But no building, however grand, can possess a soul by itself. People give a building its soul. And for 50 years, the staff of this Office have helped to give the Presidency its soul.
Some of the most touching reminders of that truth have come from the families of former Presidents.
Following his marriage to his beloved Suzanne, Mr. Peter Clarke, son of our first President, Sir Ellis Clarke, held his wedding reception here, on these very grounds – a powerful testament to the blending of family and President’s House.
Dr. Jean Ramjohn-Richards, the wife of the fourth President, Professor George Maxwell Richards, recalls that when President Richards became President-Elect, one of her first concerns was not protocol, ceremony or state business. It was her dogs. The staff first assured her that kennels would be built. But when it became clear that the dogs had never lived that way, the staff simply adapted. They made room for them inside the Cottage. Ms. Bacchus prepared their meals. Choy and Felix walked them in the evenings. And when Forest, one of the dogs, chased after President Richards’ car in the morning, the driver would stop, put Forest into the back seat, and take him safely home.
That kind of love and support are not found in any constitutional text. But they tell us a great deal about the depth of the service that the staff at President’s House are always willing to give.
Dr. Ramjohn-Richards also remembers Christmas pastelles, black cake, staff children’s parties, and the kindness of Ms. Bacchus, Bernadette and Antoinette. She remembers Anne, the housekeeper, who always made sure everything was in place for the family. These were not grand public acts. They were better than that. They were human acts. They gave peace to a family that lived within the demands of high office.
Professor Richards’ daughter, Ms. Maxine Richards, remembers that same spirit. She recalls Captain Mohammed and the Christmas decorations that had to be completed before “Daddy’s” birthday on December 1st — even if that meant working until two o’clock in the morning. She also remembers a shopping trip to Sawgrass Mills when she was so exhausted from carrying bags from one end of the mall to the other, that Captain Mohammed had to push her the rest of the way in a trolley. I must confess, the image of someone at Sawgrass Mills Mall so tired from shopping that Captain Mohammed had to push her in a trolley is not one that a President can easily pass over in silence. It proves that the duties of this Office require not only courage and stamina, but good humour as well.
But beneath the humour lies something very serious.
These memories show that the staff of the Office of the President have never served only an institution. You have served people. You have served human beings who happen, for a period of time, to live under the weight and responsibility of national office. You have helped Presidents and their families to feel secure, settled, respected and cared for. You have made difficult lives easier. You have made public service more possible.
That is why today matters.
It matters because service that takes place in silence, must not disappear into silence. Sacrifice that remains private, must not remain unappreciated. Duty that does not demand recognition, must still receive it.
As part of this commemorative year, the Office of the President has created an Exhibition that showcases various aspects of the history of President’s House and of the Office of the President. The Exhibition will grow as the year unfolds. Further elements will be added, and the story will become richer and fuller as we continue this work.
I thank the National Library and Information System Authority, NALIS, the National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Information Division of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for their invaluable assistance in providing elements of the Exhibition. Your support has helped us to recover, preserve and present important parts of our national memory.
This Exhibition also advances one of the goals I spoke about in my Inaugural Address: the creation of an archive of our Presidential history, and of the customs and conventions that attend the Office of President. I said then that the Office of the President must develop its own recorded and documented history and practices. This anniversary year has shown us, with great force, why that work matters.
A nation that fails to record its history does not merely lose dates and photographs. It loses texture. It loses memory. It loses the names of people who gave the best of themselves in places where the public seldom looked. It loses lessons that could guide the future.
We must not allow that to happen here.
We must preserve not only the record of the work of Presidents, but also the record of those who made the Presidency work. We must preserve the protocols and the practices, yes; but also the stories, the habits of excellence, the standards of courtesy, the rituals of care, the memories of staff and families, and the quiet examples of duty that shaped the character of this Office.
For a Republic is not strengthened by ceremony alone. It is strengthened by memory, discipline and service.
This Interfaith Service also reminds us of something precious about Trinidad and Tobago. We are a country of many faiths, many traditions, many cultures and many ways of understanding the sacred. We do not all pray in the same words. We do not all worship in the same places. We do not all observe the same holy days. Yet here we are, gathered in reverence and gratitude, able to stand together without becoming the same.
That is one of the gifts of our Republic.
Our diversity must never become an excuse for distance. It must become a discipline of respect. Our differences must not lead us into suspicion. They must teach us humility. In a world too often tempted by division, Trinidad and Tobago must choose unity. In a time too often marked by noise, we must choose dignity. Where indifference offers an easy path, we must choose duty.
The staff whom we honour today have lived that lesson. You have come from different backgrounds, different communities, different faiths and different walks of life. Yet you have served one Office, one Constitution and one Republic. You have shown that unity does not require sameness. It requires shared purpose.
To those who receive awards today, I congratulate you warmly. No medal, plaque or certificate can fully capture what you have given. It cannot record the early mornings, the late nights, the missed family moments, the sudden calls, the pressure of perfection, the discretion required, or the emotional labour of service near the centre of national life.
But it can say this: we remember. We value you. We are grateful.
And to anyone whose service may not have appeared fully in our records, or whose name may have escaped our search, I say this with equal sincerity: no contribution is invisible to the life of this Office. Whether you served for months or decades, whether your work placed you before the public or far from public view, you helped to build the story we honour today.
As we begin this commemorative year, let us leave this service with a renewed understanding of what makes institutions worthy of public trust. Not grandeur – but humility. Not authority – but service. Not history – but memory. Not office – but humanity.
The Presidency belongs to the Constitution. President’s House belongs to the State. But the spirit of this Office has been shaped, over 50 years, by the people who served it with loyalty, pride, humour, patience, kindness and love.
To the staff of the Office of the President, past and present: thank you.
Thank you for every door opened before anyone arrived.
Thank you for every room prepared before anyone entered.
Thank you for every journey made safely.
Thank you for every meal served with care.
Thank you for every confidence protected.
Thank you for every family comforted.
Thank you for every President supported.
Thank you for every act of service that no camera captured and no newspaper recorded.
You are not footnotes in the history of the Presidency. You are among its authors.
May this 150th anniversary of President’s House deepen our respect for the place. May this 50th anniversary of the Office of President deepen our respect for the institution. And may this day deepen our respect for the people whose quiet service has helped both place and institution to endure.
May Almighty God bless every member of staff, past and present. May He bless the families who shared you with this Office. And may He continue to bless our beloved Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Thank you.
