Errol Barrow

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Errol Barrow" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Premier of Barbados
In office 4 December 1961 – 30 November 1966
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	John Montague Stow
Deputy	James Cameron Tudor
Preceded by	Hugh Cummins
Succeeded by	Position Abolished
Personal details
Born	(1920-01-21)21 January 1920 Saint Lucy, British Windward Islands (present day Barbados)
Died	1 June 1987(1987-06-01) (aged 67) Bridgetown, Barbados
Political party	Democratic Labour Party (1955–1987)
Other political affiliations	Barbados Labour Party (before 1955)
Spouse	Carolyn Marie Barrow, (nee Plaskett)
Children	Lesley Barrow David O'Neal Barrow Eric Wayne Padmore
Alma mater	Harrison College Inns of Court London School of Economics
Occupation	Lawyer Jurist Academic Professor Author Member of Parliament Politician
Military service
Allegiance	Flying Officer

Errol Walton Barrow

Errol Walton Barrow was born on 21 January 1920 in Saint Lucy, Barbados, the fourth of five children born to the Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow (1889–1980) and his wife Ruth Albertha (née O'Neal) (1884–1939). Ruth was the daughter of a prosperous blacksmith whose success allowed him to purchase the plantation at Saint Lucy, where Errol would later be born.^[2]

Reverend Barrow, an Anglican priest, had been appointed headmaster of the Alleyne school after his sermons as curate of St Lucy parish church brought him into conflict with the island's ruling class and church hierarchy. His removal from the pulpit did not succeed in curtailing his advocacy and agitation on behalf of poor black labourers on the island. In 1919 after he challenged the financial misappropriations of the white planters who oversaw the school's endowment, the church summarily transferred him to the island of

As parish priest at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Rev. Barrow's brand of what was later termed "liberation theology", was no better received by church authorities there than it had been in Barbados. By late 1920, he was forced out of Holy Cross and he founded St. Luke AME, the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in the USVI. Although he found a home for his values in the AME Church, his theological freedom made him all the more dangerous in the eyes of the island's authorities, and in 1922 he was deported by order of the Governor as an "undesirable".^[2]

Rev. Barrow eventually made his way to New York and became a Bishop in the AME church. Unfortunately, he never reunited with his wife and it was thus that Errol Barrow spent the first six years of his life in St Croix and began his education at the Danish Preparatory School there. He would not see his father again until years later.

Ruth Barrow returned to Barbados to raise her five children with the help of her extended family, living with their grandmother Catherine O’Neal in

In Barbados, Errol first attended Wesley Hall Boys School before winning a scholarship to Combermere School, which he attended for one year before being admitted to Harrison College, then the most prestigious boys school on the island. It was during his schoolboy days that Barrow acquired the nickname "Dipper", ostensibly for his awkward cricket batting style.^[2] It was a moniker that would follow him as an affectionate brand well into his political career. After graduating from Harrison Barrow spent a year working as a legal clerk while studying to earn a scholarship to Codrington College, the school from which his father had emerged as its youngest ever graduate in 1919.^[3] His mother died in 1939, and he won the Island Scholarship in 1940, but by December of that year he had chosen a different path.

World War II and the aftermath

In December 1940, Errol Barrow, along with 11 other of his countrymen who became known as "The Second Barbadian Contingent", enlisted in the

His final RAF posting saw him seconded to the Colonial Office, where he oversaw the education and vocational training initiatives for ex-servicemen from all of the colonial territories.[4] Notably of the twelve men who left Barbados of part of the Second Contingent, six were killed during the war.^[5]

In September 1947, he was given special permission by the

Barrow returned to Barbados in 1950 and was elected to the Barbados Parliament in 1951 as a member of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) representing the parish of Saint George. Feeling the fever of anti-colonialism he had inculcated during his student days in London, he quickly became dissatisfied by general failure of the incremental approach to change advocated by the party stalwarts and their continued support of imperialist powers. By 1952, he began to openly challenge his party's policies and by 1955 made a declaration in Parliament stating: "I no longer want to be associated with them politically or otherwise."^{[10] :72}

In April 1955, Barrow and 21 other like-minded politicians and activists adopted the Constitution of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) as a progressive alternative to the BLP. In the 1956 general election, the DLP fielded 16 candidates, of whom 12 were defeated, including the incumbent Barrow in his Saint George constituency.^{[10] :75}

Barrow returned to parliament in the by-election of 1958 representing the parish of

During his tenure, the DLP government accelerated industrial development, expanded the tourist industry to reduce the island's economic dependence on sugar, introduced National Health Insurance and Social Security, and implemented free secondary school education.

Barrow was a dedicated proponent of regional integration, spearheading the foundation of the

"Mr. Seaga (Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga) thinks that the solution to Jamaica's problems is to get President Reagan to play Santa Claus. I do not believe in Santa Claus."

In May 1986, after 10 years in opposition, Barrow was re-elected as Prime Minister in a

In the late 1950s, his relationship with union activist Thelma Padmore produced a son Eric (born 1960).[13]

In her autobiography, the American singer Nina Simone claimed to have had an affair with Barrow (whose first name she misspells) during the brief period that she lived in Barbados.^[14]

During the last thirteen years of his life until his death, Barrow lived with socialite Jeanine Leemans.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, at the

• 
  Statue of Errol Barrow at Independence Square,

  Bridgetown, Barbados
• 
  Errol Barrow Centre For Creative Imagination

See also

• Politics of Barbados
• List of Premiers/Prime Ministers of Barbados
• National Heroes of Barbados

References

Further reading

• Singh, Vickram P.; Singh, Jacqueline M., eds. (29 November 2016). "5. The Visionary Errol Walton Barrow; 6. Prime Ministers of Barbados; 11. The National Heroes of Barbados". Bajan Milestones 50th Anniversary Independence. Souvenir Magazine. Legacy Advertising and Publishing Services. pp. 16–19, 29. Retrieved 16 April 2021 – via Issuu.
• Morgan, Peter, ed. (21 January 2016). "REMEMBERING BARROW: The end of an era". News. Daily Nation (Barbados). Retrieved 17 April 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Errol Walton Barrow.

• Errol Barrow - Barbados National Heroes.
• Errol Barrow - For All of Us: Address at the signing ceremony of the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
• The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, at the Cave Hill Campus of UWI.
• Historical Marker Database
• The Freedom House Photographs[
  Boston, Massachusetts
  (Archives and Special Collections of the Northeastern University Libraries in Boston, Massachusetts).
• Errol Barrow, Getty Images.
• Errol Barrow's time in the RAF - from 1940 to 1947 as an observer / navigator during WWII with 88 Squadron and post WWII flying with BAFO Communications Squadron.
• The Beautiful Blonde in the Bank – a book by Errol Barrow's wartime pilot F/L Andrew Leslie Cole AFC RAF about training in Canada, operational flying with 88 Squadron and peacetime flying with BAFO Communications Squadron.
• RAF Museum Collections Online - Photograph of Errol Walton Barrow at No. 17 Initial Training Wing, August 1942.

Parliament of Barbados
Preceded by	Member of Parliament for Saint George 1951–1956	Succeeded by
Preceded by	Member of Parliament for Saint John 1958–1987	Succeeded by David Thompson
Political offices
Preceded by Hugh Cummins	Premier of Barbados 1961–1966	Office abolished
	Minister of Finance of Barbados 1961–1976	Succeeded by Tom Adams
New office	Prime Minister of Barbados 1966–1976
Preceded by Harold Bernard St. John	Prime Minister of Barbados 1986–1987	Succeeded by Erskine Sandiford
Party political offices
New political party	Leader of the Democratic Labour Party 1955–1976	Succeeded by Frederick Smith
Preceded by Frederick Smith	Leader of the Democratic Labour Party 1978–1987	Succeeded by Lloyd Erskine Sandiford