Public Safety and Housing Minister David Burch will be representing Bermuda in St. Lucia today at the state funeral of the late Sir John Compton, the island nation's former Prime Minister and an elder statesman within CARICOM.

Sir John was first to lead St. Lucia when it gained independence from Britain in 1979. He died on Friday, September 7, at the age of 82 from a reported series of strokes and severe pneumonia.

Premier Ewart Brown has expressed his condolences to current Prime Minister Stephenson King on behalf of Government, in a letter dated last Wednesday.

"On behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda," the letter said, "please accept my condolences on the death of Sir John Compton. You have lost a monumental leader."