The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, often referred to as ‘The Skipper’ or Father of Independence, was successful in securing many social changes in Barbados during his tenure as premier and then prime minister.
Errol Walton Barrow was born on January 21, 1920 in Saint Lucy, Barbados, the fourth of five children born to the Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow (1889–1980) and his wife Ruth Albertha (née O’Neal) (1884–1939).
In Barbados Errol first attended Wesley Hall Boys School before winning a scholarship to Combermere School, which he attended for one year before being admitted to Harrison College, then the most prestigious boys’ school on the island. After graduating from Harrison, Barrow spent a year working as a legal clerk while studying to earn a scholarship to Codrington College, the school from which his father had emerged as its youngest-ever graduate in 1919. His mother died in 1939, and he won the Island Scholarship in 1940, but by December of that year, he had chosen a different path.
In December 1940, Errol Barrow, along with 11 other of his countrymen who became known as “The Second Barbadian Contingent”, enlisted in the Royal Air Force to serve during World War II. His sister Dame Nita Barrow recounted the event in her eulogy to him at his funeral.
“I as the big sister packed his clothes ready for his move to the college. Then as he was about to leave a couple of days later, he calmly announced that he would not be going to college. ‘I’m going to England. I’ve joined the Royal Air Force.’ ”
Barrow returned to Barbados in 1950 and was elected to the Barbados Parliament in 1951 as a member of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) representing the parish of Saint George. Feeling the fever of anti-colonialism, he had inculcated during his student days in London, he quickly became dissatisfied by the general failure of the incremental approach to change advocated by the party stalwarts.
In April 1955 Barrow and 21 other like-minded politicians and activists adopted the Constitution of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) as a progressive alternative to the BLP. In the 1956 general election, the DLP fielded 16 candidates, of whom 12 were defeated, including the incumbent Barrow in his Saint George constituency.
Barrow returned to parliament in the by-election of 1958 representing the parish of Saint John and was elected Chairman of the DLP in 1959. In December 1961, the party won the general election with Barrow as its leader. He then served as premier of Barbados from 1961 until 1966 when, after leading the country to independence from Great Britain, he became the island’s first prime minister. He served continuously in that capacity as well as stints as minister of finance, and minister of foreign affairs for the next ten years.
Barrow was a dedicated proponent of regional integration, spearheading the foundation of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) in 1965. Eight years later CARIFTA evolved into the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), when Barrow, together with Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Dr. Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, and Michael Manley of Jamaica enacted the Treaty of Chaguaramas to bolster political and economic relations between the English-speaking Caribbean territories.
Prime Minister Errol Barrow collapsed and died at his home on June 1, 1987. By an act of Parliament in 1998, Barrow was posthumously named one of the national heroes of Barbados.
