BAJAN SUN MAGAZINE
NOV 2014
Leader during part of the interregnum which he
interrupted for an academic sabbatical in the United
States and, as he declared, “to recharge” his “batteries”.
The son of the late Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow and the
late Ruth nee O’Neal, Errol was the nephew of legendary
Dr. Charles Duncan O’Neal, founder of the Democratic
League, and brother of Errol’s mother.
In December, 1939, Errol won a scholarship in Classics
to Codrington College but did not pursue those studies.
Instead, he joined the Royal Air Force and served in
World War II.
He was personal navigation officer to the Commander-in
-Chief of the British Army at the Rhine between 1940
and 1942. After his stint in the RAF, Barrow studied law
Acclaimed as the Father of Barbados’ Independence,
and was called to the Bar, Inns of Court in 1949. He
Errol Walton Barrow was born in the parish of St. Lucy
returned home in 1950 as a practising barrister-at-law
on January 21, 1920. Over the 15-year period of his
and became a member of the Barbados Labour Party
Administration ù first as Premier and then as Prime
(BLP) in 1951.
Minister ù ending in 1976, he was particularly successful
in securing many social changes for Barbados.
That year he won a seat in St. George for the BLP which
moved from 12 members in the House of Assembly to
A founder-member of the Democratic Labour Party,
16, thus obtaining a clear majority for the first time. But
Barrow swept to power as Premier in 1961 and held that
the desire to fashion a new political force led Barrow in
position until 1966. He then took the island into
1955, along with Cameron Tudor and others to form the
Independence from Britain after his party won elections
Democratic Labour Party.
and he thus became Barbados’ first Prime Minister.
However