Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, NH, KCMG, PC, JP was a Bahamian politician who is regarded as the "Father of the Nation" of the Bahamas, having led it to majority rule on 10 January 1967 and to independence on 10 July 1973.
32 Facts About Lynden Pindling
2.
Lynden Pindling served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 1969 to 1992.
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Lynden Pindling was leader of the Progressive Liberal Party from 1956 to 1997 when he resigned from public life under scandal.
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Lynden Pindling conceded defeat with the words: "the people of this great little democracy have spoken in a most dignified and eloquent manner the voice of the people, is the voice of God".
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Lynden Pindling was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in 1976, and he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1982.
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Lynden Pindling was born on 22 March 1930 to Arnold and Viola Lynden Pindling in his grandfather's home in Mason's Addition, Nassau, Bahamas.
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Lynden Pindling's father was a native of Jamaica who had earlier immigrated to The Bahamas to join the Royal Bahamas Police Force as a constable.
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Lynden Pindling's father was a shopkeeper, occasional farmer, raiser of racehorses and a businessman.
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Lynden Pindling became chief delivery boy using the handlebars of his bike to make drop-offs in neighbouring areas.
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Lynden Pindling's parents wanted the best possible education available to him that they could afford.
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Lynden Pindling spent some time at a Seventh-day Adventist Primary school at his mother behest.
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Lynden Pindling participated in sports like track and field and softball.
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Lynden Pindling went on to study at King's College, University of London, from which he received a law degree.
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Lynden Pindling was admitted to the Middle Temple on 12 October 1948 and was Called to the Bar on 10 February 1953.
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Lynden Pindling was elected the party's Parliamentary Leader over the dynamic and popular labour leader Randol Fawkes.
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On 5 May 1956, Lynden Pindling married Marguerite McKenzie, of Long Bay Cays in Andros, at St Ann's Parish on Fox Hill Road in Nassau.
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On 27 April 1965 Lynden Pindling delivered a speech in the House of Assembly.
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Lynden Pindling was elected prime minister in 1967 on a platform that included hostility to gambling, corruption and the Bay Street Boys' mob connections.
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Lynden Pindling went on to lead Bahamians to independence from Great Britain on 10 July 1973 amid controversy.
20.
Lynden Pindling introduced social security measures in the form of the National Insurance Scheme, and the formation of the College of The Bahamas, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, among many others.
21.
Lynden Pindling held the additional portfolio of Minister of Finance from 1984 to 1990.
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Lynden Pindling told the commission that US interests had first approached him with evidence to implicate the UBP in corruption, which led to the royal commission.
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In 1973, during a US Senate subcommittee investigation of corrupt offshore finances, Mob elements accused Mike McLaney and his associate Elliott Roosevelt of having offered a contract to kill Lynden Pindling for reneging on the deal.
24.
Lehder boasted to the Colombian media about his involvement in drug trafficking at Norman's Cay and about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs to the ruling Progressive Liberal Party, but Lynden Pindling vigorously denied the accusations, and made a testy appearance on NBC to rebut them.
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However, in 1992 the opposition Free National Movement bested the PLP in the General Election, even though Lynden Pindling retained his South Andros seat.
26.
The FNM won a second landslide victory in 1997, and Lynden Pindling retired from politics shortly afterward.
27.
In early 1996, Lynden Pindling began showing signs of occasional tiredness and other symptoms.
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Lynden Pindling then underwent a ten-week course of radiation treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Baltimore.
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Lynden Pindling was later given a clean bill of health by his doctors and returned to his post-Prime Minister work as lawyer.
30.
On his final visit to Johns Hopkins in early July 2000, Lynden Pindling's prognosis was fatal, and the cancer had spread to his bones.
31.
At his home on Skyline Drive, New Providence, on a Friday evening, Lynden Pindling, surrounded by ministers and family, was in his final hours.
32.
Lynden Pindling's body was finally laid to rest at St Agnes Cemetery on Nassau Street in a mausoleum.