3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica
What position did Hugh Shearer take from 1967 to 1972?
Hugh Shearer Hugh Lawson Shearer ( 18 May 1923 – 5 July 2004 ) was a Jamaican trade unionist and politician , who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica , from 1967 to 1972 . Biography . Early life . Born in Trelawny Parish , Jamaica , near the sugar and banana growing areas . Shearer attended St Simons College after winning a parish scholarship to the school and later received an honorary LLD from Howard University School of Law . Personal life . Hugh Shearer , while working as a journalist , married his first wife Lunette , an accounting clerk , on 7 October 1947 . They purchased a property at Chisholm Avenue where they lived , until Mr . Shearer left the matrimonial home . Shearer was separated from his first wife , with whom he had three children , by the time he became Prime Minister in 1967 . Hugh Shearer married his second wife , Dr . Denise Eldemire , on 28 August 1998 . She is the daughter of the late Dr . Herbert Eldemire , who served as Jamaicas first Health Minister from 1962 to 1972 . The couple were married for nearly 6 years , until his death in July 2004 . Career and trade unions . In 1941 he took a job on the staff of a weekly trade union newspaper , the Jamaican Worker . His first political promotion came in 1943 , when Sir Alexander Bustamante , founder of the Jamaican Labour Party ( JLP ) , took over editorship of the paper and took Shearer under his wing . Shearer continued to get promotion after promotion within the union and acquired a Government Trade Union scholarship in 1947 . He was appointed Island Supervisor of Bustamantes trade union , BITU , and shortly afterwards elected Vice-President of the union . Political career . Shearer was elected to the House of Representatives of Jamaica as member for Western Kingston in 1955 , an office he retained for the next four years until he was defeated in the 1959 elections . Shearer was a member of the Senate from 1962 to 1967 , at the same time filling the role of Jamaicas chief spokesman on foreign affairs as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United Nations . In 1967 he was elected as member for Southern Clarendon and , after the death of Sir Donald Sangster , appointed Prime Minister on 11 April 1967 . Thanks to his work with the Jamaican Worker earlier in his life , Shearer managed to stay on generally good terms with the Jamaican working class , and was generally well liked by the populace . However , he did cause an outcry of anger in October 1968 when his government banned the historian , Walter Rodney from re-entering the country . On 16 October a series of riots , known as the Rodney Riots broke out , after peaceful protest by students from the University of the West Indies campus at Mona , was suppressed by police ; rioting spreading throughout Kingston . Shearer stood by the ban claiming that Rodney was a danger to Jamaica , citing his socialist ties , trips to Cuba and the USSR , as well as his radical Black nationalism . Shearer was generally uncomfortable with notions of pan-Africanism or militant black nationalism . He was also insecure about the stability of newly independent Jamaica in the late 1960s . His term as Prime Minister was a prosperous one for Jamaica , with three new alumina refineries were built , along with three large tourist resorts . These six buildings formed the basis of Jamaicas mining and tourism industries , the two biggest earners for the country . Shearers term was also marked by a great upswing in secondary school enrolment after an intense education campaign on his part . Fifty new schools were constructed . It was by pressure from Shearer that the Law of the Sea Authority chose Kingston to house its headquarters . In the 1972 Jamaican general election , the JLP was defeated by 37 seats to 16 seats , and the Peoples National Party leader , Michael Manley , became Prime Minister . In 1974 , Shearer was replaced as leader of the JLP by Edward Seaga . Between 1980 and 1989 , during the prime ministership of Seaga , Shearer was deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs . Death and legacy . He died at his home in Kingston on 5 July 2004 , at the age of 81 . He was survived by his wife , sons Corey Alexander , Howard , Lance and Donald , and daughters Hope , Hilary , Heather , Mischka Garel , and Ana Margaret Sanchez . On 14 May 2009 , the Bank of Jamaica announced a plan to issue a JA$5000 note with the likeness of Shearer on it , as was explained in detail on Monday 18 May 2009 by the Governor of Jamaicas Central Bank Derick Milton Latibeaudiere . The $5000 bill with Hugh Shearers portrait was put in circulation on 24 September 2009 . In Jamaican slang , a $5000 banknote is referred to as a Shearer . Sources . - Neita , Hartley , 2005 . Hugh Shearer ; A Voice for the People . Kingston , Jamaica : Ian Randle Publishers , The Institute of Jamaica . - Senior , Olive , 2003 . Encyclopaedia of Jamaican Heritage . - Image shearer , 27 August 2013 : http://www.jis.gov.jm/special%5Fsections/Shearer/