Sir Grantley Herbert Adams, CMG, QC (28 April 1898 – 28 November 1971) was a Barbadian politician. He served as the inaugural premier of Barbados from 1954 to 1958 and then became the first and only prime minister of the

West Indies Federation The West Indies Federation, also known as the West Indies, the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean th ...

from 1958 to 1962. He was a founder of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), and he was named in 1998 as one of the National Heroes of Barbados.

Early life

Adams was born at Colliston, Government Hill, St. Michael, on 28 April 1898. He was the third child of seven born to Fitzherbert Adams and the former Rosa Frances Turney. Adams was educated at St. Giles and at Harrison College in Barbados. In 1918, he won the scholarship and departed the following year for his undergraduate studies at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. Adams played a single match of

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

during the 1925–26 season, as a

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

against

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

in the Inter-Colonial Tournament.

Political career

Adams' political interest began when he was still a law student in England. He became a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

at Oxford, finding his views aligned best with those of the Asquithian liberals, in support of private enterprise and trade. Under the Liberal ideals of the era, support of trade union action, representational government and reform of the land ownership and taxation system were towards the overall goal of fostering free trade.Hoyos, F. A., ''Grantley Adams and the Social Revolution'', Macmillan (1974). As the British liberals that shaped him rejected the socialism of the British Labour Party, so too did Adams oppose the labour-focused efforts of the Democratic League of Charles Duncan O'Neal and Clennell Wickham on his return to Barbados in 1925. He attacked their strike efforts as editor of the Agricultural Reporter, a planter paper that had opposed workers' rights since its nineteenth century inception. With a growing reputation and popularity among the conservative establishment, Adams' entry into the House of Assembly in 1934 was assured by his role in the deconstruction of the socialist League, including bankrupting one of the key journalistic voices in support of workers' rights. Lewis, Gordon, ''The Growth of the Modern West Indies'', New York, 1972. Nevertheless, Adams' fundamental belief in liberal policies meant that he tended to support pro-working class efforts once he was installed in the House, and continued to espouse many of O’Neale's causes after the man's passing in 1936. Adams therefore consolidated his position by subsuming the fragmented Labour movement he had shattered, and marrying them to his own liberal ideals. It is this face that embraced the workers' rebellions of 1937 and lead to the establishment of the Barbados Labour Party in 1938. Adams was president of the Barbados Workers' Union (BWU) from 1941 to 1954, and was involved in the lowering of the exclusive income qualification in 1942. By 1949, governmental control was wrested from the planters. In 1952, Adams became a political enemy of Billy Strachan, a Jamaican communist and former Royal Air Force pilot who went onto become a pioneer of Black civil rights in Britain. Adams ordered Strachan to disband the London branch of the Caribbean Labour Congress, an organisation which Strachan was then the leader of. However, the branch voted overwhelmingly in favour of continuing their activities and ignored Adams' demand to disband. In further defiance of Adams, Strachan and fellow communist activist Ferdinand Smith conducted a speaking tour of the Caribbean. Adams became the first Premier of Barbados in 1954 and additionally Minister of Finance in the same year. Four years later he became the Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation, defeating Ashford Sinanan by two votes. (Sinanan went on to serve as Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad's Democratic Labour Party.) Adams served this role from 1958 to 1962; Barbados was one of the ten provinces of the West Indies Federation, an organisation doomed by nationalistic attitudes and by the fact that its members, as British colonies, held limited legislative power. Yet he retained his reputation for conservatism through his support of the

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. His leaderships's failure to form unions such as the BWU and his rejection of attempts to speed up the push for Independence was used by his opponents as evidence that he was no longer in touch with the needs of his country. Errol Walton Barrow, a fervent reformer, became the new people's advocate. Barrow had left the BLP and formed the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) as the social democrat alternative to Adams' liberal government, one that cleaved more closely to Labour's disruptive traditions. As such, Barrow instituted many progressive social welfare focused on demolishing long-standing class barriers, including free education for all Barbadians, and the School Meals system, the latter being vehemently derided by Adams himself. By 1961, Barrow had replaced Adams as Premier and the DLP controlled the government.

Personal life

Adams was married to Grace Thorne (1904-1990) in 1929 at St. John's Church. Their only child, Tom, himself won the Barbados Scholarship and attended Oxford to become a lawyer. Tom Adams was elected as Barbados' second

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

in 1976.

Legacy

Grantley Adams International Airport, formerly Seawell Airport, located in

Christ Church, Barbados The parish of Christ Church is one of eleven historic political divisions of Barbados. It has a land area of and is found at the southern end of the island. Christ Church has survived by name as one of the original six parishes created in 1629 ...

, was named after the former Premier in 1976. A statue in honour of Adams is located in front of Government Headquarters at Bay Street, St. Michael. Adams is one of Barbados' National Heroes. He was the father of Barbados' second Prime Minister following independence, the late J. M. G. "Tom" Adams. Adams was buried in Bridgetown, Barbados, at the churchyard of the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and All Angels on Saint Michael's Row. The former home of Adams, located on Roebuck Street, Bridgetown, functions as the headquarters of the Barbados Labour Party political group. Adams is featured on the front of the Barbados $100 bill, popularly referred to as a "Grantley".

References

External links

Sir Grantley Herbert Adams biography
The Caribbean Community secretariat {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Grantley 1898 births 1971 deaths Barbadian lawyers Knights Bachelor Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Leaders of the Barbados Labour Party Finance ministers of Barbados Prime ministers of Barbados Colonial government in the West Indies Barbadian Queen's Counsel Barbadian cricketers Barbados cricketers Barbadian sportsperson-politicians 20th-century Barbadian lawyers Barbados in World War II People educated at Harrison College (Barbados) Members of the Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation Wicket-keepers