Eric Matthew Gairy was born on 18 February 1922 in Dunfermline, St Andrew, Grenada, to peasant parents, and migrated to Trinidad and then to Aruba in the early 1940s to work at an ESSO oil refinery, where he first became involved in trade union organising.
After being expelled from Aruba for his labour activities, Gairy returned to Grenada in December 1949 and founded the Grenada Manual and Mental Workers' Union, targeting the low wages paid to labourers on the island's cocoa and sugar estates.
A successful general strike in 1951 launched Gairy into politics as leader of the Grenada United Labour Party, and he was elected chief minister of the colonial government in 1954, going on to serve as Premier from 1967 following constitutional reforms that granted Grenada greater autonomy.
When Grenada achieved full independence from Britain on 7 February 1974, Gairy became the nation's first Prime Minister, a position he held until his government was overthrown in a coup led by Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement in March 1979.
Gairy, who had been knighted for his service, spent several years in exile in the United States following the coup, returning to Grenada in 1984 after the collapse of the revolutionary government and continuing in opposition politics until his death in 1997.
- Founded the Grenada Manual and Mental Workers' Union, 1949
- Led the successful 1951 general strike that launched his political career
- Grenada's first Prime Minister at independence, 1974
- Served as head of government in Grenada across three constitutional eras
- Knighted for his political service
- Labour organising can be a direct path into national leadership. Gairy's trade union work fighting for estate workers' wages built the political base that carried him to the premiership two decades later.
- Political legacies are rarely free of complexity. Gairy's historic role as Grenada's first Prime Minister sits alongside the controversies that ultimately led to his government's overthrow.