Today is Errol Barrow Day, a public holiday in Barbados. This public holiday celebrates the birthday of Errol Barrow, the first Prime Minister of Barbados.
Born on January 21st 1920, Errol Walton Barrow served in the RAF during the Second World War, flying in over 40 bombing missions over Europe. Barrow was an RAF Navigator in 88 Squadron, 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF). He saw active service supporting the Allied ground forces, bombing German communication infrastructure positions and airfields where he accrued 48 bombing sorties giving him 103 hours and 25 mins combat flying time.
After the war, he earned his law degree in England before returning to Barbados.
His political career began in 1951 when he was elected as a member of parliament for the Barbados Labour Party. In 1955, he became a founding member of the Democratic Labour Party, becoming its leader in 1958. He became Premier of Barbados in 1961.
Barrow was a key figure in the movement for independence and became the first Prime Minister of Barbados on 30 November 1966. During his time as prime minister, he is credited for introducing free education, National Insurance, improving health care and expanding the tourism sector.
After two terms as Prime Minister, he lost the election in 1976. He became Prime Minister for the second time in 1986 but died suddenly while in office on September 8th 1987.
Today is the birthday, in 1950, of British singer and songwriter Billy Ocean. His 1984 single ‘Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) peaked at No.1 in the US and Ocean won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song. He accumulated a series of international hit singles ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’ (1985 and the theme song for the film The Jewel of the Nile), ‘There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)’ (1986). In 1988, his single ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car’ reached No.1 in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgcYGgtf8M
