Barbados PM is dead

Thompson became the Barbados Prime Minister after leading the Democratic Labour Party to victory in the January 15th, 2008 elections.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Saturday October 23, 2010 – Barbados’ Prime Minister David Thompson is dead. He passed away at 2:10 am today, just over a month after the country learned he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Thompson, 48, died at his private residence in Mapps, St Phillip, with his family by his side.

He leaves to mourn an entire nation, along with his wife Mara and three daughters – Mischa, Oya and Osa-Marie. He is also survived by mother Margaret Knight and father Charles Thompson.

It was back in May that Thompson announced to the nation he was suffering stomach pains since March. On September 16th, after several trips to seek medical attention overseas, his personal physical revealed the diagnosis.

Thompson had been undergoing treatment and had been in and out of office for several months, travelling to and from the New York Presbyterian Hospital where he was being given chemotherapy to shrink the tumour in his pancreas so it could be safely removed. He had lost a significant amount of weight over the past few months because of it.

At the end of last month, in an audio address to the nation (which he chose not to do on camera because he said he wanted people to focus on the message and not how he looked), he announced he had reshuffled his Cabinet, giving up much of his responsibilities to other ministers, including passing over the portfolio of Finance to Chris Sinckler. 

Thompson’s deputy, Freundel Stuart, has been acting as Prime Minister.

Thompson became Barbados’ sixth elected, post-independence leader after leading his Democratic Labour Party to victory in the January 15th, 2008 elections. 

He is the third Barbadian leader to die in office. The country's first prime minister Errol Barrow and his successor Tom Adams also passed away while still prime ministers.

Thompson’s political journey

Thompson was born on Christmas Day 1961, the third of his parents’ six children. His early childhood spanned London, Britain, where he was born, and Barbados where he was nurtured and schooled.

He received his primary teaching at the St Gabriel’s Junior School before proceeding to Combermere School for his secondary education. He completed his secondary schooling at Combermere, securing a Barbados Exhibition in 1979, returned to his alma mater to teach before pursuing a law degree at the University of the West Indies where he graduated with honours in 1984.

He subsequently went to law school and went to work at the law firm of Prime Minister Barrow who groomed him for leadership.

Following Barrow’s death in 1987, Thompson successfully contested the by-election in the constituency of St John which he represented up to the time of his death.

His first Cabinet appointment was in 1991 when the prime minister at the time, Erskine Sandiford, made him Minister of Community Development and Culture. His passion for and commitment to meaningful youth development, as well as his interest in culture, saw him in the vanguard in the establishment of the Barbados Youth Service and the Youth in Business Programme, as well as in the restructuring of the National Youth Orchestra.

From 1992 to 1993, he was switched to the Ministry of Finance as Minister of State, and between 1993 and 1994 he assumed full responsibility for that Ministry. During that time, he was responsible for restructuring the sugar industry and the offshore sector, monitoring the government’s successful stabilization programme with the International Monetary Fund and the structural adjustment programme that was implemented in 1993.

Thompson became leader of the DLP when Sandiford resigned after defeat in a parliamentary no-confidence motion. 

Although always winning his own riding, and by overwhelming margins in all six attempts, Thompson was at the helm of the DLP when the party lost the general elections of 1994 and 1999. He resigned as party leader in 2001 and Clyde Mascoll took over. However, when Mascoll switched allegiance to the then ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Thompson once again became opposition leader and DLP president in 2006. 

Two years later, he led the DLP to an overwhelming victory in the general elections as the party took 20 of the 30 parliamentary seats, pushing the BLP into Opposition.

Over the years, Thompson has also provided consultancy services to a number of regional and international organisations, including: the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Caribbean Law Institute, the Caribbean Policy Development Centre and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.

David John Howard Thompson (December 25, 1961 - October 23, 2010)

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