#TributestoaPrimeMinister – A rare politician and public figure

I received the news of the passing of Sir Lloyd Sandiford late in the evening of June 26. The sense of loss and grief I felt was great. I had last spoken to him on March 24th when I made my annual call to extend birthday greetings to him.

I first heard the name Erskine Sandiford in 1966 when it was announced that he had been appointed Personal Assistant to Prime Minister Errol Barrow. I began to hear it a little more often the following year, in 1967, when he was appointed to the Senate and assigned the portfolio of education in the Barrow cabinet, replacing J. Cameron Tudor who had held that portfolio since 1961.

I eventually met and interacted with him directly in 1970 when I was accepted into membership of the Democratic Labour Party. He had been accepted into membership six years earlier in 1964.

Lloyd Erskine Sandiford was one of that kind of politician and public figure of which the local landscape has boasted unfortunately too few. He was a true man to whom the path of duty usually seemed more attractive than the path of personal advantage. Whether as party official, as Cabinet minister, as Prime Minister, or, more recently, as diplomat, a sense of duty is what defined and distinguished him.

The Democratic Labour Party will always be in his debt for having conceptualised and produced its Academy of Politics for the education and enlightenment of its members on the pulsating issues of the day.

His record as Minister of Education speaks eloquently for itself. He secured the building of the St. George Secondary, the Daryll Jordan and Graydon Sealy Secondary schools. He effected major expansion at the Springer Memorial Secondary school and he finalised plans for the building of the Frederick Smith Secondary school. These initiatives were all intended to deal with the issue of access to school places in government-owned secondary schools in light of the introduction of free secondary education. As minister, his predecessor, J. Cameron Tudor had announced the intention of the government to establish a sixth form college to cater to students of secondary schools without sixth forms, and to minister to the needs of school leavers who had entered the world of work but wanted to continue their education. It fell to Sir Lloyd to see that project through. This Sir Lloyd did with undeviating resolve, and supported the college as minister, as teacher, and as Prime Minister for the remainder of his public life. Than he, I have met no one more committed to the fortunes of that college; as he, I have met no one as committed. Nor can it be forgotten that it was Sir Lloyd who had the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute established, had a new Education Act passed in 1975 and introduced the legislation that would set up the Student Revolving Loan Fund. [caption id="attachment_393324" align="alignnone" width="650"] Rt. Hon. Freundel J. Stuart, K.C, former Prime Minister of Barbados sharing a light moment with the late Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford.[/caption]

His achievements as Prime Minister will also bear celebration. It was his government that passed legislation to confront the scourge of domestic violence in Barbados, the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act, 1992.He it was, also, who took the tough decisions and faced down the international financial institutions when they insisted on an adjustment to the exchange rate of Barbados’ currency. But Sir Lloyd learnt as well that tough decisions do not come free! He faced the truth of what Cornelius Tacitus wrote two thousand years ago, that is, when things are going well, everyone claims some of the credit; when fortunes change, however, that burden is the responsibility of one man only.

Sir Lloyd bore with fortitude and with loneliness the pressures engendered by the challenges which confronted Barbados in the early 1990s. In political terms, he wore the aspect of a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. The details of those challenges are too well known to merit repetition here and will continue to shelter in the decent obscurity of parliamentary and media house archives. What no one now disputes is that Barbados was the better off for those decisions and those sacrifices. The time eventually came when Sir Lloyd was able to reflect on those events and those times with complacent and phlegmatic serenity. It was during that dark period that his government was able to build the Deighton Griffith Secondary School and the conference centre which now bears his name.

The duties of the office of Prime Minister, Sir Lloyd discharged with humility, but when occasion warranted, he celebrated the eminence to which he had been elevated on Errol Barrow’s passing with candid relish. Not for him, though, obsessive concern with the next day’s headlines; not for him any cheap gimmickry intended only to catch the winds of popular favour; not for him any culture of fluff, facade or falsehood!

For the 28 years he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for St. Michael South, he was more than their voice in Parliament. He entered into and shared the common joys and griefs of the ordinary man and woman in St. Michael South. He rejoiced with them when they rejoiced and wept with them when they wept. His presence among them invariably evoked the glow of their affection, their respect and their loyalty.. As their MP he always kept his ears close to the ground, but never so close that he could not hear what an upright man was telling him. That relationship, though formally ended in 1999, continued informally until his death.

Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford was a man of cultivated mind and shining integrity. He brought that integrity to public life and left public life with it intact. His service to Barbados bears out the truth spoken by former US Senator Allan Simpson: “If you have integrity, nothing else matters; and if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

On Friday July 16th, we must all let go of him and release him to Almighty God in whose celestial habitation his soul is guaranteed true peace, rest eternal and perpetual light. We will long remember Sir Lloyd Sandiford with gratitude for his distinguished service.

To his widow Lady Sandiford, to his children, to his beloved grandchildren and to the countless others bereaved by his passing, I extend heartfelt condolences. May he Rest in Peace.

Rt. Hon. Freundel J. Stuart, K.C, former Prime Minister of Barbados. ]]>