One sometimes discovers unexpected and surprising things when one searches the Internet for something. So it was with Gilbakka while researching a topic he will write on later.
This is the story of Clara Esther Ramdeholl who distinguished herself as the second Indo-Guyanese woman to qualify as a lawyer. The first was Gladys Sarran in 1932. That same year Clara Ramdeholl travelled to the United Kingdom and was admitted to the Middle Temple Inn at age 23. She passed her Bar Finals seven years later. Her businessman father Robert Ramdeholl passed away in New Amsterdam while she was studying abroad.
Clara booked a passage to Guyana on the S.S. SIMON BOLIVAR and set sail on November 14, 1939 with her brother Dr Cecil Ramdeholl who had spent six months' leave in England. World War II had just started and German submarines were hunting down British and American ships in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Only four days after departure, German magnetic mines blasted and sank the S.S. SIMON BOLIVAR.
Clara and her brother got on board a lifeboat but were pitched out onto the water. They managed to climb onto another boat and that one capsized. Clara died in the cold North Sea where her bones lie to this day.
The Ramdeholl family were, and still are, worshippers at the Canadian Mission Presbyterian Church. The Mission raised funds and built a small church in New Amsterdam and dedicated it to the memory of Clara Ramdeholl on April 15, 1940. The Ramdeholl Memorial Church is currently being renovated.
