Lynden Pindling

Who was Lynden Pindling?

The Right Honourable Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, KCMG, OM, PC, JP, is regarded as the "Father of the Nation" of the Bahamas, having led it to Majority Rule on 10 January 1967 and to independence on 10 July 1973. He served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 1969 to 1992. He was leader of the Progressive Liberal Party from 1965 to 1997 when he resigned from public life under scandal.

Pindling won an unbroken string of general elections until 1992, when the PLP lost to the Free National Movement led by Hubert Alexander Ingraham. He conceded defeat with the words: "the people of this great little democracy have spoken in a most dignified and eloquent manner the voice of the people, is the voice of God".

Pindling was a member of the Imperial Privy Council, and he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983.