Robert Bradshaw (politician)
| Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First Premier of Saint Kitts and Nevis | |
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In office 27 February 1967 – 23 May 1978 |
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| Succeeded by | Paul Southwell |
| Chief Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis | |
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In office July 1966 – 26 February 1967 |
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| Preceded by | Paul Southwell |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 September 1916 Saint Paul Capisterre, Saint Kitts |
| Died | 23 May 1978 (aged 61) Basseterre, Saint Kitts |
| Political party | Labour Party (1946–1978) |
Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw (16 September 1916 – 23 May 1978) was the first Premier of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, and previously served as Chief Minister, legislator, and labour activist.
Bradshaw was born in the Saint Paul Capisterre Village in Saint Kitts to Mary Jane Francis, a domestic servant, and William Bradshaw, a blacksmith. He was raised by his grandmother after his father moved to the United States when Bradshaw was nine months old. He attended St. Paul's Primary School and completed seventh grade, the highest level of primary education available in Saint Kitts at the time.
At 16, Bradshaw became a machine apprentice at the St. Kitts Sugar Factory, where he began to take interest in the labour movement. In 1940, he left the sugar factory following a strike for higher wages and joined the St. Kitts and Nevis Trades and Labour Union as a clerk. Bradshaw succeeded Joseph Matthew Sebastian as president of the union in 1944.
In 1963 he married, Millicent Sahaley, a Kittitian-Lebanese. They had one daughter, Isis Carla Bradshaw, together. His first daughter, Etsu, is from an earlier relationship.
Bradshaw supported the cause of the sugar workers, and was one of the political stalwarts of the country. He entered politics in 1946 and won a seat in the Legislative Council in the elections that year, later becoming a member of the Executive Council. In 1956 he was Minister of Trade and Production for St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla. During the short-lived West Indies Federation (from 1958 to 1962), Bradshaw was elected to the Federal House of Representatives and held the post of minister of finance for the Federation.
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