Captain AA Cipriani

[Sweet Sue Ohio]

Greetings! I am looking for information on my great uncle Captain AA Cipriani. I know there is a book written about him, by C.L.R. James. I would love to have a copy. but its long out of print. Captain Cipriani was my fathers uncle. I think he had 2 brothers. One of which was my grandfather, whose name I don't know. I know there is a technical college named for our family, and possibly a department store. I also know there is a statue of my great uncle in Trinidad, and I have seen pictures of it. I wrote to the technical college at one time, and never heard anything from them. Can anyone tell me anything?

[Solachica]

Go to the owtu library.
When I was in secondary school I did a project on him & had gone to the owtu library in san fernando & they had lots of info there.

[Solachica]

In Trinidad most places not to good with using email & answering emails so don't hope for an answer

[bigzack]

In Trinidad most places not to good with using email & answering emails so don't hope for an answer

Sola, yuh preach dey.

Oh gosh we backwards when it comes to communicating and customer service.

[edyle]

There is the Cipriani Labour College.

On the Parliament Channel (TV) there are often short documentaries (half hour) about historical figures of Trinidad and Tobago. There probably is one entirely devoted to him, and others concerning the labour movement, Butler, and others, that mention his roles.

[Poser]

from the first post .. it looks like this person is not in Trinidad ..

[Poser]

"Through his pioneering efforts, Andre Cipriani and his colleagues
and staff at Chalk River developed the first highly active cobalt
sixty sources, which were made for the treatment of malignant
diseases."


The Ciprianis - a family at the heart of the country

The most prominent place in the heart of Port-of-Spain is overlooked
by a statue of Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani. Thousands of people
pass it every day - and most of them don't even see it anymore. That
is the extent to which Captain Cipriani has been assimilated into the
cityscape.

And yet, his achievements in this country benefit to this day those
very people going to work every day, passing his silent memorial.

People who were children in the 1930s would remember that each time a
small airplane passed, the adults around them would point up and
say: "Look Mikey passing." Mikey Cipriani, yet another sprout of the
Cipriani family, was a significant West Indian sportsman and pioneer
aviator. Until recently, there was a call from time to time that
Piarco airport should be renamed in his honour.

Cipriani Boulevard, connecting Tragarete Road with the Savannah, was
named in memory of Emmanuel Cipriani, Captain Arthur's uncle, who was
several times mayor of Port-of-Spain. He was also responsible in
bringing electricity to the capital.

But the Ciprianis produced not only outstanding figures in the field
of sports, business, civic administration and the military, but also
in the arena of high-end science and technology. Andre Cipriani,
another cousin of Arthur and Mikey, brought relief to thousands of
patients suffering from malignant cancer through his break-through
research in cobalt radiation therapy at a time, when chemotherapy was
as yet unheard of.

The Cipriani family is of ancient Italian origin. In the 13th
century, in the feudal wars the racked Italy, the noble family had to
give up their towers and fortifications in Florence and flee to the
Mediterranean island of Corsica, where they recreated their fortunes
and even married into the famous Bonaparte family, who centuries
later produced the Emperor Napoleon.

In the 17th century, descendants of the Ciprianis established
themselves in Marseilles, France. It was from there that some members
of the family set sail for Trinidad in the late 18th century. They
married into other Corsican, French and Spanish families.

Arthur Andrew Cipriani - also known as `Tatoo' - was born in 1875.
While his sportsmanship and his success with riding and training
horses was quite considerable, he was known as a solitary sort of man
and in fact never married.

When he came back from the First World War in 1919, he accepted the
presidency of the Trinidad Workingmen's Association. This
organisation had then been in existence for just over 20 years, and
during the war it had `fizzled out', as C.L.R. James put it in 1932.
James stated further:

"If there is anything which can prove the fitness of the people of
Trinidad for self-government, it is the progress of this resuscitated
Association."

Captain Cipriani was very determined in his goal to improve the
conditions for workers in Trinidad and Tobago, which was then
administered by British Crown Colony rule. At the time he became
president, the Workingmen's Association was only operating in Port-of-
Spain. Nine years later, it had spread throughout the colony: there
were 42 affiliated sections and six in Port-of-Spain, distributed
among various classes of workers. In 1930, Cipriani established 13
sections in Tobago.

The meetings of the Association were always well attended - not only
by its members, which went into the thousands by 1932, but also by
plain-clothes policemen, who were sent there by the government to
keep a sharp lookout for seditious remarks. As C.L.R James said:

"But though Captain Cipriani gives these amateur reporters a lot to
take down, they get little to carry away."

Cipriani explained to the people matters of policy, circulated the
Workingmen's Associations organ `Labour Leader', and generally
rallied people in Trinidad and Tobago to become interested in
domestic politics and labour issues.



The Hon. Capt. A.A. Cipriani in court dress
(Paria Archives)

The Association was tremendously effective. It was instrumental for
shorter work hours (especially in the retail sector), at a time when
an eight-hour working day and free Saturdays were unheard of.
Cipriani also fought for the introduction of Workers' Compensation
Laws, under which workers were granted compensation for injury and
death, and for the establishment of an Agricultural Bank, which
facilitated low-interest loans to farmers for seed or helped them in
case drought, fire or flood.

Regarded by his peers as an officer and a gentleman, the Captain
definitely had a common touch. He became a spokesman for the people
in the Legislative Council, acting at times almost like an Ombudsman,
and his contribution to the legislative process in Trinidad cannot be
overstated. He was many times Mayor of Port-of-Spain, and was
presented at Buckingham Palace in London on more than one occasion.

"No public man is more widely known in Trinidad," said C.L.R. James
in 1932. "Many West Indians (and a few Englishmen too) have worked
for the emancipation of the West Indies. Their stories will be told
in time, but no one has worked like Captain Cipriani."

When Arthur Cipriani died in 1945, it is hardly imaginable today what
loss Trinidadian workers felt. That he was revered by the basically
black and coloured middle-class intelligentia that assumed power in
the 1950s is an indication of the stature of `The Captain'.


So next time you pass the monument on Independence Square on a Friday
afternoon, coming from work, stop a moment to cherish your upcoming
free weekend. Without Cipriani and his dedication to Labour, you
might have had to work tomorrow!

Mikey Cipriani epitomized the `local boy made good'. Born around the
turn of the century, he came from a branch of the Cipriani family
that left the colonial stigma of illegitimacy and skin colour behind.
His father Jules had prospered as a businessman and built a
remarkable mansion on Pembroke Street, known as `Cumberland House'
(where an insurance firm is today). Mikey's mother, who carried the
exotic name Louisa Leonisa Ultima Latour, is remembered for her great
beauty.

Louise Ultima had 14 children, and Mikey was the third. He became a
solicitor by profession, but made his name as a champion cyclist,
cricketer and footballer and as an aviation pioneer. The sporting
fraternity knew him as `Marvellous Mikey', and in the 1920s and 1930s
sporting champions were revered by Trinidadians in much the same way
as they are today.

Mikey also became a highly decorated hero in the first European war
in which he served putting `backbone' into the French troops at
Verdun. During this war he became interested in aviation, and flew on
several missions over the western front in the closing years of the
war.

Returning to Trinidad, he became a pilot, flying his own airplane,
the Hummingbird. Mikey's landing strip was on a portion of land west
of the river and south of Mucurapo Road, and he also used Piarco
airfield.

Only forty years of age, he crashed in the Northern Range in 1934,
with a young Englishman called Bradshaw on board. His body was taken
from the wreckage of his plane, and thousands of people attended his
funeral, people of every class, colour and creed, from the
Representative of the British Crown to the barefoot people in the
street.

Andre Cipriani, son of Leonetto Paul Cipriani and Helen Sellier, was
cut from a different cloth. He demonstrated from an early age an
interest in science. His father started to gear him for the
scholarship class of St. Mary's College. Andre was successful and
left for McGill University in Canada in 1928. He took his bachelor's
and master's degrees in mathematics and physics, his PhD in
gynecology and obstetrics.

After the Second World War, Andre entered the field of atomic energy.
He became director of biology and radiation hazards at the Atomic
Energy Plant at Chalk River in Canada, where he created a unique
laboratory.

Through his pioneering efforts, Andre Cipriani and his colleagues and
staff at Chalk River developed the first highly active cobalt sixty
sources, which were made for the treatment of malignant diseases.
Several hundred cobalt therapy units have been produced by the
commercial products division of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and
sold worldwide, bringing relief to thousands of suffering patients.

At his death at age 48 in 1956, the BBC gave Andre a three-minute
obituary, describing him as the most knowledgeable man in the world
on radiation hazards.

And yet, his success in the field of atomic research for peace is not
known in Trinidad, nor the fact that he - like the famous Marie
Curie - was a victim of his own research.

http://osdir.com/ml/culture.templar..../msg00002.html

[Poser]

At no time in our history has politics transcended the decayed and depraved characteristics of the human order than in today's system we call parliamentary conduct.

But if one local politician could be remembered for an astute, humane disposition, demonstrated in the most righteous manner and acclaimed by all citizens of his time, and indeed today, 52 years after he passed away, he would be Arthur Andrew Cipriani.

Not regarded as one's typical political figure by several critics, but rather as a true servant of the people through the city administration culture, Cipriani nonetheless, became a champion of the Trinidad and Tobago worker, man-in-the-street and even businessman.

Only Uriah Butler, a contemporary of Cipriani's, could perhaps equal him in recognition of service and sensibility towards the people who depended upon them both in the hard, scrunting early and mid-20th century years in Trinidad.

But while Butler was basically a trade union giant, whose political career was not entirely a great success, Cipriani won his stripes in that fold, battling politically against many from top to bottom of the ranks and class in this country to put things right for the people, as a trade unionist, as a major civil servant and political force.

He took issues in hand if even it meant crushing some of the most influential corns in the land, he fought for the poor at the expense of the well to do and he never let up until he found solutions to all problems.

Cipriani told an audience at the May Day celebrations of 1936: "Ciprianis before me and after me have played every part in the history of a people. Our ancestors were bandits and brigands in Corsica; they robbed the rich to feed the poor, they were brigands and outlaws because they hated the rule." He added that there was one role, which the Ciprianis had never played, the role of hypocrisy and sycophancy and he was not going to be a hypocrite or sycophant.


More http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_AACipriani.html

[letric]

Cipriani, gave dignity to the barefooted man. Butler brought the
inarticulate masses on a national scale on to the political stage.

[trinialex]

Greetings! I am looking for information on my great uncle Captain AA Cipriani. I know there is a book written about him, by C.L.R. James. I would love to have a copy. but its long out of print. Captain Cipriani was my fathers uncle. I think he had 2 brothers. One of which was my grandfather, whose name I don't know. I know there is a technical college named for our family, and possibly a department store. I also know there is a statue of my great uncle in Trinidad, and I have seen pictures of it. I wrote to the technical college at one time, and never heard anything from them. Can anyone tell me anything?

I would suggest you visit Maracas St Joseph,where Capt. Cipriani used to live,I vaguely remember the house in which he lived,a few hundred feet from the RC Church.I also remember the stories surrounding a crash landing he made in the valley.I am sure you would meet people there who has first hand knowledge of their beloved neighbour and fellow villager.
West Indian Regiment servicemen were given plots of land in Maracas,St Joseph on there return from WW 2.

[dancerboy]

POSER my good friend, very informative, and interesting reading.

DANCERBOY

[Poser]

POSER my good friend, very informative, and interesting reading.

DANCERBOY

thanks DB .. i admired AA Cipriani and his work for the people of TnT