V. C. Bird
|
The Right Honourable Sir Vere Bird KNH |
|
|---|---|
| 1st Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda | |
|
In office 1 November 1981 – 9 March 1994 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor-General |
Wilfred Jacobs James Carlisle |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Succeeded by | Lester Bird |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 December 1910 St. John's, British Leeward Islands |
| Died | 28 June 1999 (aged 88) St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda |
| Political party | Labour |
Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr., KNH (9 December 1910 – 28 June 1999) was the first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. His son, Lester Bryant Bird, succeeded him as Prime Minister. In 1994 he was declared a national hero.
He was an officer in the Salvation Army for two years. In 1943, he became the president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union. He achieved national acclaim politically for the first time when he was elected to the colonial legislature in 1945. He formed the Antigua Labour Party and became the first and only chief minister, first and last premier, and first prime minister from 1981 to 1994. His resignation was due to failing health and internal issues within the government.
In 1985 Antigua's international airport, which was first named Coolidge, was renamed V.C. Bird International Airport in his honour.
Bird was born in a poor area of St John's, the capital. Unlike most of his giant political contemporaries – such as Manley and Adams, who were distinguished lawyers, and Trinidadian Sir Eric Williams, a scholar – Bird had little formal education except primary schooling. He attended the St. John's Boys School, now known as The T.N. Kirnon Primary School.
He was an officer in the Salvation Army for two years interspersing his interests in trade unionism and politics. He gave up the Salvation Army because he saw the way the land owners were treating the local black Antiguans and Barbudans; And decided to leave his post to fight for the freedom of his people, which he succeeded in doing.
In 1939, when the Antigua Trades and Labour Union (ATLU) was formed Bird was an executive member. By 1943 he had become president of the union and was leading a battle for better working conditions and increased pay against the white sugar barons. The union entered electoral politics for the first time in 1946 and Bird won, in a by-election, a seat in the legislature and was appointed a member of the Executive Council.
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