St. John's, Antigua Antigua and Barbuda's first Prime Minister and Father of the Nation, the Rt.Honourable Vere Cornwall Bird Senior passed away peacefully at 6:58pm on Monday 28 June 1999.

Sir Vere had undergone a brief illness and was hospitalised in May for a urinary condition at the Holberton Hospital in St. John's. His condition quickly deteriorated over the last few days.

V. C. Bird had the distinction of many firsts in his political career. On 16 January 1939, a young Vere Cornwall Bird, a former Salvation Army Captain, was elected as an executive member of a trade union that was formed in Antigua to organise the labour force and to secure the rights of workers against oppressive and exploitative conditions in the sugar industry and at the Port. When the Antigua Trades and Labour Union gained its legal status in 1943, he became its first President. In the same year, he gave the workers a public voice with the emergence of the Union's newspaper, The Workers Voice. Under the leadership of V.C. Bird, the Union established the principle that a worker could not be dismissed without compensation. It also won the right to negotiate for workers and for contracts to be signed.

Recognising that the power rested among the plantocracy in the Executive Council of the Legislative Assembly, V. C. Bird sought and was elected to the Executive Council in 1946. However, not satisfied that his suggestions were being implemented in the Executive Council, Vere Bird fought for constitutional reform that would put the political power in the hands of the people. In 1951, full adult suffrage was achieved in Antigua without qualification of income or literacy. In that same year, the Union representatives, led by V.C., won all eight seats in the Legislature and V. C. Bird Snr. was made Chairman of one of three Executive Council Committees.

V. C. Bird was a key figure in the 1947 Montego Bay Conference in Jamaica that decided on the creation of the West Indian Federation. He carried the dream of a Federation as a delegate in 1953 and 1956 to Conferences of West Indian Governments at Lancaster House in London that worked out the mechanics of West Indian Federation.

A ministerial system of government was introduced in Antigua in 1956 and in the General Elections of that year, the Union contested and won all eight of the elective seats. The membership of the Executive Council increased from eight to ten in 1961 and Barbuda, which previously had been attached to St. John's as one constituency, was made a separate constituency. By this time the post of Chief Minister had been created and V. C. Bird became Antigua's first Chief Minister.

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The Rt. Hon. Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Snr.

During this period, V. C. crusaded for free Government schools and the first public school, the Princess Margaret School, was built in 1955.

After the collapse of the West Indian Federation in 1962, V. C. Bird, along with Errol Barrow of Barbados and Forbes Burnham of Guyana, established the Caribbean Free Trade Association at a conference at Dickenson Bay in Antigua in 1965. This was to be the forerunner of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) which today comprises 15 member States.

In the 1965 General Elections, the people once again gave the Union their overwhelming support and every seat was won by the Union representatives, including the seat for Barbuda. Then in 1966, V. C. Bird led a delegation to a Constitutional Conference in the United Kingdom to seek independence. The result was an agreement for Associated Status under which Antigua with Barbuda and Redonda would have full control of all internal affairs while Britain retained control of defence and external matters. In February 1967, V.C. Bird Senior was appointed the first Premier of Antigua and Barbuda.

In 1968, the solidarity of the working class was tested and the Antigua Worker's Union was formed as a challenge to the AT&LU. The AWU's political arm, the Progressive Labour Movement (PLM) contested and won the General Election in 1971. The PLM served only one term in office and in 1976, V.C. Bird was re-elected to Parliament and the Antigua Labour Party formed the Government. After another election victory in 1980, V.C. Bird went back to Lancaster House in London to seek full independence for Antigua and Barbuda.

On 1^st November 1981, Antigua and Barbuda became an independent nation and V.C. Bird Snr. became the first Prime Minister. He led the ALP to two more general election victories in 1984 and 1989, finally retiring in March 1994 at the age of 83.

In July 1998 he was awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community by the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and Common Market in recognition of the special role he played in the development of the Caribbean countries and their people. In November 1998 he was honoured by the people of Antigua and Barbuda receiving the highest Order of Knighthood the nation could bestow.

In his long life, Sir Vere Cornwall Bird had presided over the transformation of his country, declaring that neither the size of the country nor its population constituted an obstacle to its achievements. Indeed, V.C. Bird Snr. raised up the people of Antigua and Barbuda and left the nation much better off than he found it.

May his soul rest in peace.