Hugh Springer


Sir Hugh Worrell Springer was the organiser and first general secretary of the Barbados Workers' Union and Barbados' third native Governor-General. He was a lawyer, politician and public servant. By an act of Parliament in 1998, Springer was named as one of the ten National Heroes of Barbados.

Early life and education

In Barbados Springer was educated at Harrison College. Upon receiving a Barbados Scholarship in Classics, Springer studied Greek as an undergraduate at Hertford College, University of Oxford, receiving a BA in 1936.

Career

Law and politics

He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1938, and subsequently returned to Barbados. He practised at the Bar in Barbados from 1938–47.
He co-founded the Progressive League with the barrister Grantley Adams. As General Secretary of the League, Springer transformed it into two initially closely related organisations, the Barbados Labour Party and the Barbados Workers' Union. From 1940-47 he was the General Secretary of the Barbados Labour Party and also General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union. In 1940 he was elected to the House of Assembly.

Higher education

Springer perceived Higher Education as vitally important for achieving regional cooperation and integration. He had previously sought employment in education in London in the 1930s, but was rejected on the basis of his ethnicity. In 1938 he taught Classics temporarily at Codrington College. He was a member of the Asquith Commission on Higher Education in the West Indies in the 1950s and sat on the Provisional Council of the University College at Kingston which was founded as an outcome of the commission. In 1947 resigned from the Cabinet of Barbados and took up the position as the Registrar of the University College of West Indies, which he held until 1963, when he became Director until 1966.

International politics

Following the collapse of the Federation of the West Indies in 1962, Springer dedicated time to considering regional politics. He received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fellowship of the Harvard Centre for International Affairs where he completed his 1962 book Reflections on the Failure of the First West Indian Federation. During 1962-63 he was a Senior Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. On returning to Barbados, Springer was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Education at the University of the West Indies.

Commonwealth and international education

Springer dedicated much of the period from 1964–84 to the areas of commonwealth and international education. He was Assistant Secretary- General at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Director of the United World College.
He was appointed Governor-General of Barbados in 1984, a position which he held until he retired due to ill-health in 1990.

Honours

Springer received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1976, and was elected as an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford in 1974 and All Souls College in 1988. Springer received a Doctor of Civil Law from the University of New Brunswick in 1980.
A portrait of Hugh Springer by Hector Whistler is on display in the hall of All Souls College.
In 1998, Hugh Springer was named as one of the ten Barbadian National Heroes, designated by the Order of National Heroes Act.
A biography of Hugh Springer was published in 2008, authored by Kean H. W. Springer.
A commemorative stamp of Hugh Springer was issued in 2016 as part of ‘The Builders of Barbados' series.

Selected publications

Springer, H.W. 1962. Reflections of the Failure of the First West Indian Federation.
Springer, H. W. 1967 "University-Government Relationships in the West Indies ", in University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Collected Seminar Papers on Relations between Governments and Universities