Bernard Nottage

Bernard Jonathon Nottage (born October 23, 1945 in Nassau , Bahamas , † June 28, 2017 in Florida ) was a track and field athlete , doctor and politician from the Bahamas for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), who participated in the Summer Olympics in 1968 and later was minister several times.

Life

Degree and athlete

Bernard Jonathon Nottage, son of Bernard J. Nottage and Olivia Nottage, attended Southern Junior School , Southern Senior School and Government High School in Nassau and then began studying medicine at the University of Aberdeen . He joined the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as a member while studying and was involved at the university in 1966 as the founder of Operation UNICOLL , a youth and student organization for fellow students from the Bahamas. In 1967 he became chairman of the youth organization The Bahamas Confederation of Youth .

During his studies he was active in sports and participated in the Pan American Games in 1967 in Winnipeg in part. In the 200-meter run , he finished sixth with 21.9 seconds. At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City , he was part of the Bahamas team. In the 100-meter run , he retired with 10.64 seconds as fourth in the fifth heat. In the 200-meter run , he qualified fourth with 21.31 seconds in the fourth heat for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, however, he was eliminated in eighth place and last in the quarter-finals with 21.53 seconds. Along with Jerry Wisdom , Tom Robinson and Edwin Johnson, he was on the team in the men's 4 x 100 meter races . This qualified with 39.45 seconds in the first run for the semifinals. In the second run of the semifinals, however, the team was disqualified.

Doctor and sports official

In 1969, Nottage completed his medical studies with a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and a Bachelor of Surgery (Ch.B.). He then worked from 1969 to 1970 as an assistant doctor (house officer) at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and then from 1970 to 1971 as senior house officer at the Aberdeen General Hospital , where he was a ward doctor for obstetrics and gynecology from 1971 to 1974. For his services he was in 1971 by the Scottish Ministry of the Interior and Health to research scientists ( Research Fellow ) appointed for Social Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology. After his return to the Bahamas in 1974 he became senior physician for obstetrics and gynecology at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) in Nassau and at the same time chairman of the medical committee, chairman of the medical advisory committee and president of the medical staff of this hospital.

1976 Nottage also became president of the national amateur sports association BAAA (Bahamas Amateur Athlete Association) . In addition to his medical work, he was involved in 1977 and 1982 in the constituency of Centerville in the campaign committee of Perry Christie , who later became Prime Minister of the Bahamas . He also took over the post of President of the Central American and Caribbean Athletics Federation CACAC (Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation) in 1982 . In April 1986 he became Medical Director of the newly established St. Luke's Medical Center in Nassau and in December 1986 Chief Physician and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Princess Margaret Hospital .

MP and Minister

Bernard Nottage became a member of the National Insurance Board in 1983 and was chairman from September 1987 to January 1989. He was also a member of the National General Council of the PLP for the constituency of South Beach from 1985 to 1987, and from 1985 to 989 as President of The Bahamas Planned Parenthood Association . After he was elected for the first time in the elections on June 19, 1987 in the newly created constituency of Garden Hills for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as a member of the House of Assembly , the lower house of the Parliament of the Bahamas, he gave up his medical practice. In December 1988, his choice was made vice-president of the Regional Association of North America, Central America and the Caribbean of the International Association of Athletics Federations IAAF ( International Association of Athletics Federations ) , who gave him in 1986 as the youngest former athletes the IAAF Veteran Pin was awarded the highest award for Amatheursportler, . In January 1989 he was appointed Minister of Consumer Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling .

In the course of a government reshuffle, he took over the post of Minister of Education in the Pindling cabinet on October 1, 1990 . In this role, he was responsible for scholarships, pre-debt, cultural and arts development, industrial, arts and crafts education, public libraries and museums, school welfare, college and university relations in the Bahamas and the West Indies, and archive management. He held this ministerial office until the end of Pindling's tenure on August 21, 1992.

Return to government and opposition leader

In the election on March 14, 1997, Nottage for the PLP in the Kennedy constituency in New Providence South was re-elected as a member of the House of Assembly. He resigned from the PLP during this electoral term and was one of the founders of the Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) and was elected chairman of this third party in early 2000. He missed as their top candidate in the election on May 2, 2002, the return to the House of Assembly . In 2005 he rejoined the PLP, which was again prime minister with Perry Christie. He was then appointed a member of the Senate and shortly thereafter appointed as Minister of Health and National Insurance in the first Christie government.

In the election on May 2, 2007, Bernard Nottage was re-elected to the House of Assembly for the PLP in the constituency of Bain and Grant's Town . However, the PLP lost its majority, and he Managing opposition leader (Leader of Opposition Business) was. Following the PLP's victory in the May 7, 2012 election, he was appointed Minister of National Security to Prime Minister Perry Christie's second cabinet on May 10, 2012, a post until the end of Christie's tenure on May 11, 2017. At the same time, he acted from 2012 to 2017 as Managing Majority Leader (Leader of Government Business) . In the election on May 10, 2017, the PLP suffered landslide losses in which it lost 25 seats and only had four MPs. Nottage itself lost its constituency of Bain and Grant's Town to the 22-year-old Travis Robinson of the Free National Movement (FNM).

From his marriage to Portia Keva Nottage, the two sons Brian Jamale and Patrick Andre and the daughter Sasha were born. He died in a Florida hospital on June 28, 2017 and was buried in the Lakeview Memorial Gardens Cemetery on July 14, 2017 after his transfer .

Web links

• Entry in Caribbean Elections
• Entry in National Library & Information Service
• Entry in Olympic Sports
• Dr Bernard Nottage Dies Age 71 . In: The Tribune of June 29, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bahamas: May 7, 2012