These posts all feature Errol Barrow (1920 – 1987): distinguished Barbadian statesman, visionary leader and a champion of Caribbean unity who led Barbados to independence on 30th November 1966 and then served as Barbados’ first and fourth Prime Minister.
Prior to independence from: 1961 to 1966 as leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Errol Barrow served as the third Premier of Barbados during the island’s transition from full internal self-government to being an independent nation.
From 1940 – 1947 Errol Barrow served in the RAF where he trained as a Navigator in Canada and then served with RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, 2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF), seeing active service supporting the Allied ground forces, bombing German communication infrastructure positions and airfields where he accrued 48 operational bombing sorties giving him 103 hours and 25 mins of combat flying time.
Post WWII Errol Barrow served with British Air Forces of Occupation (BAFO) Communication Squadron assigned to C-in-C Military Governors Flight as one of the navigators assigned to Marshal of the Royal Air Force William Sholto Douglas, the Military Governor of Germany who was classed as a 5 star General.
On leaving the RAF in 1947 Errol spent three years secondary re-training, post active-service in London, where he read Economics and Industrial Law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Law at the Inns of Court, before being repatriated to Barbados in November 1950 after ten years away from home.
When Errol Barrow returned home he was drawn to politics.
The leadership training Errol Barrow received in the RAF, the need to operate within a close knit aircrew and operate at peak concentration while under fire, together with his natural intellectual skill nurtured in Barbados at Harrison College and honed in London after World War II at the London School of Economics and The Inns of Court, provided the foundation for the man Bajans affectionately know as “Skipper” or “Dipper”: The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, PC, QC (21st January 1920 – 1st June 1987).