George Charles

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George Frederick Lawrence Charles , KCMG (born June 7, 1916 - June 26, 2004 ) was a politician of the Saint Lucia Labor Party (SLP) from St. Lucia , who was chief minister between 1960 and 1964. Because of his political merits, he is considered a national hero .

Life

Trade unionist and founder of the SLP

George Frederick Lawrence Charles completed his school education at St. Mary's College, founded in 1890, and then emigrated to Aruba , where he worked for the Largo Oil and Transport Company for a year . During this time he began his union involvement and after his return to St. Lucia in 1945 he supported the interests of the workers in the project to build the Castries-Vigie Airport , where he was employed as a time controller. In 1948 he was elected to the Castries City Council as a representative of the trade unions and campaigned for the spread of democratic representation. Because of his commitment, he became general secretary of the St. Lucia Workers Cooperative Union, founded in 1939, and played an essential role in the country's labor movement . In 1950 he was one of the key figures in founding the Saint Lucia Labor Party (SLP), the country's oldest surviving party. The SLP quickly became the leading party in the country and under his leadership had a moderate socialist orientation. She advocated the strengthening of workers' rights and greater autonomy for St. Lucia, which at the time was ruled by an administrator appointed by the United Kingdom .

In the first elections to the Saint Lucia Legislative Council after universal suffrage for adults in 1951, she won five of the eight seats and beat the People's Progressive Party (PPP), also founded in 1950, which was close to the middle class. In his first resolution as an elected member, he called for legal recognition of the right to paid leave, which was rejected by the colonial authorities. In 1954 he also became president of the influential Saint Lucia Workers Union (SLWU). After the SLP had won the elections in September 1954, he was first Minister for Education and Social Affairs in 1956 in a ministerial government of the British administrator John Kingsmill Thorp and from 1958 Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith . In 1957 he also took over the role of political leader (Leader) of the SLP and won seven of the eight seats in the Saint Lucia Legislative Council in the 1957 elections . A series of constitutional reforms followed, which eventually led to a full system of ministerial government in 1960. The now 13-member Legislative Council had ten elected members.

Chief Minister and Opposition Leader

In honor of George Frederick Lawrence Charles, Castries-Vigie Airport was renamed George FL Charles Airport on August 4, 1997 .

Thereupon George Charles became the first Chief Minister (Chief Minister) of St. Lucia on January 1, 1960 . In the 1961 elections that followed, the SLP won nine of the ten seats to be elected in the Legislative Council. However, his leadership was called into question by a group of younger party officials who, in internal disputes, opposed his re-election as party leader and chief minister. After the 1961 election they founded a new political party, the National Labor Movement (NLM), so that the SLP only had a slim majority in the Legislative Council with six of the ten elected members. However, there were further internal party conflicts, which led to the resignation of two other elected SLP MPs and the calling of new elections. He held the office of chief minister until the defeat of the SLP in the elections in April 1964, after which John Compton of the newly formed United Workers Party (UWP) became the new chief minister. Subsequently, the UWP became the dominant party and the SLP was in the opposition until independence on February 22, 1979 , so that George Charles played a less prominent role in politics. He held the office of party leader until 1967 and resigned as president of the St. Lucia Workers Union in 1968 . He eventually put in April 1974 also functions as an opposition leader (Leader of the Opposition) down, which then Allan Louisy took over.

In 1987 he was awarded the St. Lucia Cross , the second highest award in the country, for his longstanding service . In September 1992, Sir Ira Simmons Secondary School was renamed George Charles Secondary School . On August 4, 1997, Castries-Vigie Airport was renamed George FL Charles Airport in his honor. On June 13, 1998, he was beaten by Queen Elizabeth II to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), so that from then on he carried the suffix "Sir". He died on June 26, 2004 after a short illness and was posthumously raised to one of the national heroes of St. Lucia on February 22, 2015 on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of independence, together with George Compton .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heads of Government of Saint Lucia in Caribbean Elections
  2. ↑ Saint Lucia: Chief Ministers in Rulers
  3. ^ Leaders of the Opposition of Saint Lucia in Caribbean Elections
  4. ↑ Knights and Dames in Leighrayment
  5. ^ National Heroes of Saint Lucia in Caribbean Elections
personal data
SURNAME Charles, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charles, George Frederick Lawrence (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lucian chief minister, opposition leader and union official
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1916
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2004