Rev. Fr. S. Sebastian Campbell

Nation Builders to be honoured on Sunday, October 16th

Nassau, Bahamas - Legislation in 2007 declares October as National Heroes Month and the Second Monday therein as National Heroes Day.  This same Legislation also established a system of National Honors. 

Sad to say, none of these have been enacted as they await a simple act of Government dating the same.

I, therefore, urge Bahamians of all walks of life to join the National Heroes Committee in accepting October as our National History/ Heroes Month and to celebrate National Heroes Day.  The will of the people is by far the greatest arsenal of power to be found anywhere. Let the Government catch up with the people.

Like in former years, persons are singled out for recognition as Heroes at this time.  The Fox Hill Community plans to celebrate in this vein during the second week of October.  I strongly, urge all communities including family Islands to celebrate their designated Heroes at this time.

Mr. William Bill Cartwright is being singled out for national recognition as a hero. (Please find his autobiography enclosed) In his words: “I have been through hell and damnation for may people.”

He is the last of three persons, still alive, who gave birth to the first successful political party in our Bahamas.  In fact the original idea for the formation of a political party came from him.     He financed it in its early days being its original treasurer.  At that time, 1953, he was a sitting Member of Parliament for the Cat Island District.

Mr. Cartwright paid a heavy price for being a bold pioneer, he was crushed by the power of Bay Street, but the dream lives on and Party Politics is with us to stay.

In addition to private functions a service of Thanksgivings to honour our Nation Builders, especially William Cartwright will be held at St. Gregory’s Anglican Church on Sunday 16 ^th October, 2011 at 9:30am.   The Governor General will be in attendance.  The public is invited to attend.

William Cartwright - A True Story (Bahamian Review: July / August 1983 Vol 31 # 3)

William Cartwright is a former Legislator, founder of the Progressive Liberal Party and founder of the successful monthly Magazine, Bahamian Review, (which was started in 1952) and read in over 40 countries.  He also founded the first tourist publication, now owned by his son, Kevin B. Cartwright –   The Pocket Guide to the Bahamas, which he brought from his father in 1974.

Mr. Cartwright was born at Long Island, Bahamas.  He is the son of England Cartwright and Eva Strachan Cartwright.  He was educated in public schools in Hope Town, Abaco and Long Island, Bahamas.   He also enrolled successfully in correspondence schools in the United States and the United Kingdom, holds certificates in Journalism from the Magazine Institute, New York.  He is widely travelled, having recently attended a writer’s conference for ten days in October, 1982 in Seoul, Korea.

Mr. Cartwright has devoted some 20 years to public life, 7 of which as a member of the House of Assembly for the Cat Island constituency where he served from 1949.  With no model to go by to start a political party, at great financial expense he travelled to London in June, 1952, to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and for some weeks sought out and gathered valuable information and guidelines in establishing the first political party, The Progressive Liberal Party, which made its debut in September of the same year.

Mr. Cyril Stevenson accompanied him on this trip and later he and Mr. Stevenson went to Jamaica to study the party system under the PNP and JLP administration.  Their hard work and great sacrifices paid off when the PLP, led by Sir Lynden Pindling, then the Honorable Lynden Pindling, was elected to govern the Bahamas in 1967.The party has been in power ever since.

To adequately prepare himself for the strenuous election campaign in the General Elections of 1949, Cartwright took a short 10-week course in intelligence, psychological and political planning under the tutorship of a retired American Colonel in Atlanta, Georgia.  This then gave him the edge to successfully enter the four-cornered contest at Cat Island in which some 150 members of the Old Bay Street oligarchy put up their toughest fight in which thousands of pounds circulated prior, and during the election.

During this election the secret ballot was used for the first time and it fell to Mr. Cartwright to educate the people on how to safeguard their democratic rights by using the ballot properly.  The whole exercise took some 16 months, going from house to house speaking with the men when they came to Nassau on the mail and freight boats and on the island itself.

Suffice it to say, he had less than a thousand pounds to fight the campaign with and only 10 men to help him in five polling divisions.  When the votes were counted, he was ahead of the Honourable Harold Christie by some 56 votes, but in a recent recount at Arthur’s Town, many of his ballots were thrown out as being “spoiled”.  Some were marked “Cartwright” or the “X” went straight from his name to Sir Harold’s.  He was elected the junior member.

Cartwright says that Sir Harold’s Christie fought a clean election; he found him to be one of the most decent men in the Bay Street Group, a man with liberal views, but he was most interested in pioneering investments into the country.  He did a marvelous job in his area. He never lifted a finger to hurt Cartwright at any time.  They became friends up to a point.  Cartwright knew that he had to start a political party so that the majority of black people could secure their rights once and for all in a modern democratic fashion.  Any other way would be a waste of time and effort.

After the PLP was formed, there was great opposition to it.  It came from the daily papers, the church, most of the House Members, and even a large segment of the population was against it.  They were afraid.  In fact, there was only one bank in the Bahamas at that time.  They were seen as trouble makers who should be done away with.

At the first executive Board Meeting, members moved for Cartwright to be the first Chairman.  He declined and instead nominated Mr. H. M. Taylor to organize all branches in the country.                 Mr. Stevenson was put in charge of propaganda, and so he became the editor of the Herald, which Cartwright had earlier purchased form Hally who brought it from the Estate of the late J. Stanley Lowe.

Cartwright was not interested in becoming the chairman of the Party or to be Prime Minister.  He took the post of the Treasures and was responsible for financing the party and getting it off the ground.  He figured Taylor could be the Chairman of the Party for some time when later Mr. Pindling would eventually be asked to be the leader, as he was fresh out of law school and more easily identified with the majority of the population.

Racial discrimination was firmly institutionalized in the social economic and human fibre of the country.  No one dared to change it.  Black people could not attend the movie houses in the city, or the hotels, or the city restaurants, and even in some churches segregation was strictly enforced.  In others there was a subtle form coming down from some church bishops and elders but not in an open fashion.  The PLP changed this.

Cartwright knew that only a political party could break this; so he challenged it openly when the PLP was founded.  His Motto is “Political and economic power will yield only to him who demands it”.  This was what the number one plank in the Party’s Constitution was all about.

The founding of the Progressive Liberal Party in 1953 is the single greatest act for the liberation of Black people in the Bahamas since the abolition of slavery in 1838.

William Cartwright’s only motive was to serve his country.  There was no thought of power or monetary gain.  Members of Parliament served without pay until 1968.

In 1955 another political party was formed to counter the PLP.  It was founded by Sir. Etienne Dupuch, called the Bahamas Democratic League.  This lasted less than a year.  In 1958 the United Bahamian Party was formed by the House membership of the Bay Street boys, and this lasted up until 1971, when it too was dissolved.  In 1972 the Free PLP, later the FNM came on the scene and it took a strong foothold in Parliament in the last elections in 1982 when 11 members were elected under the leadership of Mr. Kendal Isaacs and Mr. Wallace Whitfield.

The only successfully published weekly magazine in the Bahamas was also founded by Mr. Cartwright.  It was the popular and widely circulated PEOPLE AND TV WEEKLY which made its debut in August of 1976.  It is now published by his son, Kevin.

Another monthly magazine is the ELEUTHERA TRAVELER, already a success with sales said to be nearing the Bahamian Review Magazine’s.

William Bill Cartwright describes his life as “A success “.  I have never failed at anything I turned my hand to.  Mainly because I work harder, have more patience, and am persistent to the end.  “I enjoy work…it’s what makes my life tick”… “I’ve been a builder all my business life”.

Now retired from politics, Mr. Cartwright devotes full time publishing his magazines, routinely working a ten-hour day.

He is Roman Catholic and for recreation enjoys swimming, fishing, dancing and TV shows. He neither smokes nor drinks.