Lester Bird

Sir Lester Bryant Bird (21 February 1938 – 9 August 2021) was an Antiguan politician and athlete who served as the second prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda from 1994 to 2004. He was chairman of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) from 1971 to 1983, then became prime minister when his father, Sir Vere Bird, the previous prime minister, resigned.

Early life and education Bird was born in New York City on 21 February 1938 to Vere Bird and his Barbudan wife Lydia. Lester and his elder brother Vere Bird Jr., also a British-educated lawyer, were considered sometime rivals, with The New York Times writing in 1990 that Lester had always overshadowed his brother, according to those who have known them both. He was educated at Antigua Grammar School and was brought up as a Methodist. Bird was a cricketer in his youth, playing for the Leeward Islands, and a long jump champion. He won a bronze medal in the long jump at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago while representing the British West Indies. He attended the University of Michigan, where he was All-American long jumper in 1960 and graduated in 1962.

Following independence in 1981, Bird gained the external affairs portfolio and was the first chairman of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in 1982. He was chairman of OECS for a second time in 1989. The 1999 election was deemed neither free nor fair in an independent report which concluded that the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) "conceivably could have won a majority of seats in parliament" if the election had been fair.

The ALP had been divided by a succession crisis between Lester Bird and Vere Bird Jr., since 1989. Lester Bird lost his deputy prime minister post in 1991, but retained the external affairs ministry and the planning and trade portfolio. Sir Vere Bird was initially thought to have favoured Vere Jr. until an arms scandal in which the elder son had been found to have been involved in the smuggling of weapons from Antigua to the Colombian Medellín Cartel. Bird's party lost eight seats, and he himself was defeated by Errol Cort, who became Minister of Finance in the new UPP government.

Bird remained the ALP's political leader following the party's 2004 defeat. He led the party in the March 2009 election; although the ALP lost the election, it gained 3 seats from the UPP and Bird defeated Cort by 96 votes in the St John's Rural East constituency, where he had lost in 2004. He subsequently held the position of Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

Bird was succeeded as ALP leader by Gaston Browne in December 2012, who led the party to victory in June 2014 general election. Bird won a seat and again defeated Errol Cort.

In 2014, he was made a Knight of the Order of the National Hero (KNH) by Antigua and Barbuda.

Death Bird died at the age of 83 on 9 August 2021.