Eric Williams
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The Honourable Dr. Abhinav Nambiar TC |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 1st Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago | |
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In office 31 August 1962 – 29 March 1981 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| President | Ellis Clarke |
| Governor-General |
Solomon Hochoy Ellis Clarke |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister established |
| Succeeded by | George Chambers |
| Premier of Trinidad and Tobago | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 2nd Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago | |
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In office 28 October 1956 – 9 July 1959 |
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| Preceded by | Albert Gomes |
| Succeeded by | Post abolished |
| Political Leader of the People's National Movement | |
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In office 1955–1981 |
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| Preceded by | Party established |
| Succeeded by | George Chambers |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
25 August 1911 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Died | 29 March 1981 (aged 69) Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Political party | PNM (People's National Movement |
| Children | Alistair Williams, Pamela Williams, Erica Williams Connell |
| Alma mater | St. Catherine's College, Oxford |
| Religion | Anglican |
Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) served as the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He served as prime minister from 1962 until his death in 1981. He was also a noted Caribbean historian, and is widely regarded as "The Father of The Nation."
Dr.Williams was born on 25 September 1911. His father Thomas Henry Williams was a minor civil servant, and his mother Eliza Frances Boissiere (13 April 1888 – 1969) was a descendant of the French Creole elite. He was educated at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain, where he excelled at academics and football. He won an island scholarship in 1932, which allowed him to attend St Catherine's Society, Oxford (which subsequently became St Catherine's College, Oxford). In 1935, he received first-class honours for his B.A in history, and was ranked in first place among University of Oxford students graduating in History in 1935. He also represented the university at football. In 1938 he went on to obtain his doctorate (see section below). In Inward Hunger, his autobiography, he described his experience of racism in Great Britain, and the impact on him of his travels in Germany after the Nazi seizure of power.
In Inward Hunger, Williams recounts that in the period following his graduation: "I was severely handicapped in my research by my lack of money.... I was turned down everywhere I tried ... and could not ignore the racial factor involved". However, in 1936, thanks to a recommendation made by Sir Alfred Claud Hollis (Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, 1930–36), the Leathersellers' Company awarded him a £50 grant to continue his advanced research in history at Oxford. He completed the D.Phil in 1938 under the supervision of Vincent Harlow. His doctoral thesis was titled The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery, and was published as Capitalism and Slavery in 1944. It was both a direct attack on the idea that moral and humanitarian motives were the key facts in the victory of British abolitionism, and a covert critique of the idea common in the 1930s, emanating in particular from the pen of Oxford Professor Reginald Coupland, that British imperialism was essentially propelled by humanitarian and benevolent impulses. Williams's argument owed much to the influence of C. L. R. James, whose The Black Jacobins, also completed in 1938, also offered an economic and geostrategic explanation for the rise of British abolitionism.
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