Family, friends and colleagues of the late and longest-serving Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal gathered in London for a Memorial Service and a lecture on his legacy.

The Memorial Service at The Queen’s Chapel, St James, was a well-attended morning event organised by the Commonwealth Association, in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat. The lecture, given by diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders, was part of the Commonwealth Association’s Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture series, in honour of the Association’s founder and Ramphal’s formidable official spokesperson.

More recent former secretaries-general Chief Emeka Anyoku (Ramphal’s deputy and then successor as secretary-general) and Baroness Patricia Scotland (representing the King) attended the service, held in The Queen’s Chapel, part of the Chapel Royal, adjacent to Marlborough House, the Commonwealth’s administrative HQ. The current Secretary-General, Hon. Shirley Botchwey, also took part in the memorial.

Chief Anyoku delivered the tribute describing his encounters with Sonny Ramphal over the years before becoming his successor as secretary-general. He spoke about how Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal had aimed for a Commonwealth which could “operate globally” and praised his “great rhetorical skills”.

“He was a great diplomat and an icon of the Commonwealth,” Chief Anyoku told the memorial service congregation.

Patsy Robertson lecture

In the afternoon, a larger audience attended the Patsy Robertson Lecture at Marlborough House – the fifth in the series. Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey described herself as being “part of a Commonwealth that she (Patsy) helped to shape” and Shridath Ramphal as “an example to me”.

The Commonwealth Association’s Stuart Mole, who had also worked with Shridath Ramphal, described Patsy as a “key lieutenant” to Sonny Ramphal.

Sir Ronald Sanders started his lecture on The legacy of Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal by describing Patsy Robertson as a “founding spirit” and a “trusted voice” on Commonwealth matters.

He outlined his 50 years as Sonny’s son-in-law, consulting and learning from the “confirmed internationalist”. He told his audience: “It was his character: a fierce urgency to make change for the better, always driven to ensure that progress would reach the greatest number – and endure.”

The 2025 Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture – text and video

A role for the Commonwealth

Sir Ronald outlined Shridath Ramphal’s vision for using the “healing” role of the Commonwealth, not to replace the United Nations but to help it, and its opportunity to work with member states during times of dispute. “That was integral to his often-repeated mantra that: While the Commonwealth cannot negotiate for the world, it can help the world to negotiate,” Sir Ronald said.

He also pointed to Shridath Ramphal’s belief in building alliances. He explained: “He wielded every tool to ensure the Commonwealth spoke with moral clarity while preserving unity through patient, judicious coalition-building. It was a lesson he taught me personally in my own diplomatic life.”

On Sonny’s mission to shape the Commonwealth into a “moral force”, Sir Ronald described how he had recruited expertise to produce and analyse early ways forward on environmental challenges, human rights, debt and development and negotiating a sustainable future.

The “Commonwealth in action”

Outlining the Commonwealth’s role in establishing modern Zimbabwe and fighting apartheid, Sir Ronald also described the value of retreats for heads of government at their meetings. Sonny Ramphal had taken the retreat model to a two-day mechanism to zero in on the most urgent issues in order to achieve major outcomes.

Sir Ronald said: “If we ask how Sonny turned “help the world negotiate” into concrete action, these retreats provide the answer. They show how the Commonwealth can shape global outcomes – and offer a blueprint we must revive and apply today.”

He shared an anecdote with his audience about how the freed Nelson Mandela had made a priority of visiting Sonny Ramphal’s home on his first visit to London, reminding his audience that Shridath Ramphal and the Commonwealth’s role in bringing down apartheid “must never ever be discounted”.

“This was Shridath Ramphal’s Commonwealth in action,” Sir Ronald said.

Today’s Commonwealth

Looking at today’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) where leaders read speeches to one another,Sir Ronald called for the revitalisation of the retreat model to encourage leaders to want to attend these gatherings, to achieve major results and to retain the relevance of the CHOGM commitment. He said this would allow leaders to own the decisions, rather than endorse decisions pulled together by officials.

He spoke of “rogue regimes” using Commonwealth and global silence as a cloak for abuse and worrying global trends in “countries that say they’re the bedrock of democracy”.

Sir Ronald said: “Today, we confront worrying signs of democratic backsliding and restrictions on fundamental freedoms. Sonny would urge us to remain faithful to the Commonwealth’s founding principles by keeping human rights, democracy, and development at the forefront of our collective obligations.”

What would Sonny do?

The Q&A session went along the lines of “What would Sonny do?” as former Commonwealth Secretariat staffers and colleagues posed questions on the challenges facing today’s Commonwealth.

Sir Ronald emphasised the need to answer the questions of the Commonwealth’s young people and include them in decisions being made about their futures, from AI to employment and climate change. He spoke passionately about the “period of instability” causing issues with overseas aid and concessional funding. As the ambassador for a middle-income country, he outlined the issues facing countries seeking funding and being told not to deal with China. Questions raised included future education options, bringing Palestine into the Commonwealth and bringing more countries into the organisation and how to manage this.

The day’s proceedings had been about the lessons from Sonny Ramphal’s tenure at the Commonwealth and his global vision.

“He lived a long and rewarding life and we are the beneficiaries of it,” Sir Ronald said in ending his lecture.

Debbie Ransome is the web editor for the Round Table.

Related articles:

Sir Shridath Ramphal – A tribute by Richard Bourne
Shridath Ramphal: We won’t see his like anytime soon
Shridath Ramphal – Remembering Sonny times – by Stuart Mole
A living memorial for Patsy Robertson
The plan to reset and redefine the Commonwealth Games – The Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture
A Commonwealth that Patsy would want