Lynden Pindling

Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, KCMG, PC, NH, JP (22 March 1930 – 26 August 2000) was a Bahamian politician who is regarded by some as the "Father of the Nation", having led the Bahamas to majority rule and independence.

Pindling was born on 22 March 1930 to Arnold and Viola (née Bain) Pindling in his grandfather's home in Mason's Addition, Nassau.

Pindling's father was a native of Jamaica who had immigrated to the Bahamas to join the Royal Bahamas Police Force as a constable.

His father was also a shopkeeper, occasional farmer, raiser of racehorses and a businessman.

Pindling's mother hailed from the island of Acklins, which she left as a child.

Sir Lynden Pindling was their only child.

As a young boy, Pindling worked for his father's small grocery store which was attached to their home in East Street.He became chief delivery boy using the handlebars of his bike to make drop-offs in neighbouring areas.

Earlier, this post had belonged to his then neighbour Sidney Poitier.

Pindling's parents wanted the best possible education available to him that they could afford, which led to Pindling transferring schools frequently in his earlier years.

His first attended Eastern Primary School, then located on School Lane between Shirley and Dowdeswell Street.

He also spent some time at a Seventh-day Adventist primary school at his mother behest.

Between the ages seven and nine, Pindling attended all three of the government's junior schools.

He spent approximately one year each at Eastern Junior on Bay Street, Southern Junior on Wulff Road and Western Junior on the corner of Meeting Street and Hospital Lane.

He then spent three years at Western Senior School from 1940 to 1943, where the head teacher was musician (and composer of the Bahamian National anthem), Timothy Gibson from whom Pindling also later took piano lessons.

Pindling also participated in sports like track and field and softball.

In the summer of 1943, Pindling along with hundreds of children from all over The Bahamas took examinations for enrolment in the selective Government High School (GHS).

He was one of twenty who won a place.

He graduated from GHS in 1946.

Pindling went on to study at King's College, University of London (1948–52), from which he received a law degree.

He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 12 October 1948 and was Called to the Bar on 10 February 1953.

By the end of 1953, Pindling had joined the newly-formed Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as its legal advisor.

He was leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) from 1956 to 1997 when he resigned from public life under scandal.

In May 1956, Pindling got married.

The following month, he successfully contested Nassau's Southern District constituency in the 1956 general election.

He became Parliamentary Leader of the party when PLP Chairman and de facto leader, Henry Taylor, was defeated in the 1956 general election.

Pindling was elected the party's Parliamentary Leader over the dynamic and popular labour leader Randol Fawkes.

He would go on to win successive elections to the House of Assembly in 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992 and 1997.

He was appointed as the first leader of the opposition in 1964.

On 27 April 1965, a day known in Bahamian history as "Black Tuesday", Pindling delivered a speech in the House of Assembly.

In a dramatic turn of events, Pindling ended his speech by taking the Speaker's Mace and, in a dramatic power-to-the-people gesture, throwing the mace out of a window onto the street, which temporarily halted proceedings.

He served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 1969 to 1992.

Pindling was elected in 1967 on a platform that included hostility to gambling, corruption and the Bay Street Boys' mob connections.

On 10 January 1967, the PLP and the governing United Bahamian Party (led by Sir Roland Symonette) each won 18 seats in the Assembly.

Randol Fawkes, the lone Labour MP, and Alvin Braynen, lent their votes to PLP allowing Pindling to form the first black government in Bahamian history.

Fawkes would be become Labour Minister and Braynen Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Pindling went on to lead the Bahamas to independence from Great Britain on 10 July 1973.

He introduced social security measures in the form of the National Insurance Scheme, and the formation of the College of The Bahamas and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

Pindling held the additional portfolio of Minister of Finance from 1984 to 1990.

Pindling won an unbroken string of general elections until 1992, when the PLP lost to the Free National Movement (FNM) led by Hubert Alexander Ingraham.

He conceded defeat with the words: "the people of this great little democracy have spoken in a most dignified and eloquent manner and the voice of the people, is the voice of God".