Former colleague remembers Sir Lloyd as one who always stood out

A local historian who taught alongside the late Prime Minister Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford remembers him as a scholar with a vision who would be great.  

Trevor Marshall, who taught at the Barbados Community College (BCC) with Sir Lloyd, traced a series of events which he contended, debunked the belief among certain politicians that he was not experienced enough to become prime minister at the time he did. 

Marshall said the former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) stalwart who led the country from 1987 to 1994, achieved a number of “incredible feats” in and outside of elective politics which prepared him for the ultimate leadership role.

“Nobody ever expected him to assume leadership at any level. I know that Sandi, a first-year student, a Bajan, went to Mona, Jamaica at a time when you had P.J. Patterson, Rex Nettleford and Bajans like Woodville Marshall, Nigel Barrow and Keith Hunte, outstanding students…and Sandi came and in two terms, impressed people so much, offered himself for president of the students’ guild, and won,” the prominent historian told Barbados TODAY.

“So there was something about the man…there was something about the man that has escaped a lot of us. Sandiford was a disguised alpha male,” he argued.

“Contrary to what a lot of people said about his experience to lead, Barrow [The Right Excellent Errol] said ‘after me is Sandi, and then any other number can play’. And a lot of people did not understand that Barrow knew that he had a record of leadership. When Sir Lloyd went to England in 1979, he became deputy president of the West Indies Students’ Association. He was always in leadership positions,” Marshall contended.

The historian also recalled that before Sir Lloyd succeeded in establishing the BCC, he had to “fight tooth and nail” against a number of parliamentarians including Barbados Labour Party parliamentarians who he said voted against the proposal to create the institution.

“Sandi had to fight the whole of Barbados to get the community college idea to come through gestation and to be born. And I am sympathetic to him because my own fight to get the Nelson statue removed, I think, parallels his. And Sandiford was able to carry his dream through. And what was his dream?” he asked.

“His dream was that people who went to Coleridge and Parry and The Alleyne School, and Girls’ and Boys’ Foundation Schools, and Alexandra, not to mention Ellerslie Secondary, would be afforded the same advanced level education as those who went to the sixth form schools. And he ran up against parliamentarians,” Marshall said.

“And they said that what Sandiford was doing was trying to destroy Harrison College and Queen’s College…that we did not need a community college. They fought him in Parliament, they called him a liar, a black sheep. Where would Barbados be without the community college? And yet there were people who wanted to destroy it,” he declared.

Marshall said Sir Lloyd also brought certain negotiating skills to the table which equipped him to help form the Social Partnership, a formal arrangement that allows government, labour and the private sector to meet and address critical issues affecting the country.

The historian also described the late prime minister as a quiet person who did not get into arguments with anyone.

“He wasn’t any ‘rah rah’ person. He was like Mary the mother of Jesus who kept things to himself and pondered them in his heart. He had a quiet sense of humour, he was courteous to everybody. He did not engage in a lot of arguments with you. He was always a teacher-philospher,” Marshall added. 

(EJ)