THE 40th anniversary of the death of the nation’s second prime minister, Sir Donald Sangster, will be marked by a number of public events organised by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) on Wednesday, April 11.

The main event will be a symposium in the Clarendon College auditorium, Chapleton at 4:30 pm where Opposition Leader Bruce Golding will be the guest speaker.

Sangster was the MP for North Central Clarendon at the time of his passing.

Earlier in the day, at 8:00 am, leaders of the party and its affiliate, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, will lay wreaths at the Sangster monument at National Heroes Park in Kingston. It was the first monument erected for a prime minister in the park. At 3:00 pm, a pictorial exhibition will be opened at the Sir Donald Sangster Library, Chapleton, by Gloria Charles, wife of the current MP for North Central Clarendon Pearnel Charles.

Sangster led the JLP to victory in the 1967 general election. He had been acting as prime minister since 1964 when the nation’s first prime minister, Sir Alexander Bustamante fell ill and withdrew from public life.

After being sworn in as prime minister, he was preparing his budget speech when he suffered from a subarachnoid haemorrhage and was flown to the Montreal Neuro-Psychological Institute for treatment, where he died on April 11.

After an official funeral with full national honours, Sangster was laid to rest in National Heroes Park.

The public, said the JLP, is invited to attend the symposium on the ‘Life and Times of Sir Donald Sangster’ at the Clarendon College auditorium.