Vere Bird
|
The Right Honourable Sir Vere Bird KNH |
|
|---|---|
| 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 1909 – 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.
Bird was unique from other West Indian politicians, lacking in any 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 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.
The biggest criticism from the public of Antigua is the corruption and cronyism within the Labour Party and many claim the government is essentially a "family business" with the continuance of the Bird dynasty in control of political power as unquestioned. Bird's supporters reject these accusations and say that his actions were justified to throw off the institution of colonial sugar planters and the British colonial overlords. The Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid compared the Bird government to the François Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti in her politically charged narrative A Small Place.
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