28 Facts About Errol Barrow

Errol Walton Barrow was a Barbadian statesman and the first prime minister of Barbados.

Errol Barrow is often referred to as the "Father of Independence" in Barbados.

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 and his wife Ruth Albertha.

Rev Errol 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.

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

Errol Barrow's older brother, Dr Charles Duncan O'Neal, was a prominent physician and activist who founded the Democratic League and Workingmen's Association, the first socialist organization in Barbados.

In Barbados, Errol Barrow 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.

Errol Barrow's mother died in 1939, and he won the Island Scholarship in 1940, but by December of that year he had chosen a different path.

Errol Barrow was then stationed at RAF Marham and trained as a wireless operator.

Errol Barrow was awarded his Air Navigator wings and promoted to Sergeant on 25 November 1943.

Between 23 September 1944 and 26 March 1945, Errol Barrow would fly 48 operational sorties giving him 103 hours and 25 mins combat flying.

Under battle conditions Errol Barrow proved himself to be an exceptionally competent navigator.

Errol Barrow saw active service supporting the Allied ground forces, bombing German communication infrastructure positions and airfields over the European theatre.

Sholto Douglas, who later became chairman of British European Airways, remained close to Errol Barrow and made him godfather to his only child.

Errol Barrow returned to Barbados in 1950 and was elected to the Barbados Parliament in 1951 as a member of the Barbados Labour Party representing the parish of Saint George.

Errol Barrow returned to parliament in the by-election of 1958 representing the parish of Saint John and was elected Chairman of the DLP in 1959.

Errol Barrow then served as Premier of Barbados from 1961 until 1966 when, after leading the country to independence from Great Britain, he became the island's first Prime Minister.

Errol Barrow served continuously in that capacity as well as stints as Minister of Finance, and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the next ten years.

Errol Barrow was a dedicated proponent of regional integration, spearheading the foundation of the Caribbean Free Trade Association in 1965.

Errol Barrow, who had invited public comment on the amendments verbally lashed out at those who had been critical of what he viewed as a minor procedural change in the appointment of judges.

In May 1986, after 10 years in opposition, Errol Barrow was re-elected as Prime Minister in a landslide victory in which the DLP won 24 of 27 seats in the House of Assembly.

Errol Barrow's re-election served as a catalyst for resurgent nationalism in the region, which by and large had subordinated itself to US aid policy in the early 1980s.

Errol Barrow chastised Washington for its treatment of not only the Caribbean states, but of Canada and the United Kingdom, which he described as Barbados' closest allies.

Errol Barrow was a son of the Rev Reginald Grant Barrow and Ruth Albertha O'Neal.

Errol Barrow had three other siblings, and two half-siblings from his father's second marriage.

Errol Barrow married Carolyn Marie Plaskett, the daughter of a prominent American Baptist minister in Orange, NJ, on 18 November 1945.

Errol Barrow is one of the namesakes of the island's ABC Highway.