Barbadian statesman, visionary leader and a champion of Caribbean unity led Barbados to independence on 30th November 1966 and then served as Barbados’ first and fourth Prime Minister. From 1961 to 1966, as leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Errol Barrow served as the island’s third Premier during Barbados’s transition from full internal self-government to independence.
This is the story of the seven years Errol Barrow spent in the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1940 to 1947. Errol Barrow’s time in the RAF provided the foundation for his future political career, undoubtedly influenced his leadership style, and helped him guide Barbados through significant political and social change.
Very little is written about Errol Barrow’s formative years spent as a RAF serviceman aged twenty to twenty-seven. He entered the RAF on 31st December 1940 as an Aircraftman Second Class (AC2). He left the RAF as a Flying Officer on 9th October 1947, having served the motherland for seven years. This was followed by three years of secondary retraining post-active service, during which he studied Economics and Industrial Law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Law at the Inns of Court, before being repatriated to Barbados in November 1950 after ten years away from home.
On his return to Barbados, Errol Barrow was drawn to politics and was elected to the Barbados Parliament in 1951 for St. George as part of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP). Disillusioned with the state of Barbadian politics at the time, Errol Barrow helped form the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1955 to press for social and political reform and independence from British rule.
Barrow was defeated in the 1956 elections but won a by-election for St. John in 1958, which remained his political seat until his death in 1987.
On 4th December 1961 and 3rd November 1966, the DLP won the general elections, and Barrow, as its leader, became the third Premier of Barbados and the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Barbados on 30th November 1966, serving two terms until September 1976. Errol Barrow returned to power in May 1986 with an overwhelming majority, serving as Barbados’ fourth Prime Minister. Errol Barrow died in office on 1st June 1987, aged just 67.
During World War II, Errol Barrow was a Navigator in a tight-knit aircrew with RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, 2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF), seeing active service supporting the Allied ground forces, bombing German communication infrastructure positions and airfields, where he accrued 48 bombing sorties, giving him 103 hours and 25 mins of combat flying time.
While flying with RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, Errol Barrow would have seen and experienced first-hand the horrors of medium altitude bombing
At the end of World War II, Errol Barrow spent a further two years with the British Air Forces of Occupation (BAFO) Communications Squadron in Bückeburg, in the British sector of occupied Germany, where he served as a Navigator in the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Military Governors Flight. Here Errol Barrow would have seen first hand some of the atrocities of war that subsequently came to light and were being cleared-up by the Allied occupation forces such as: the the on-the-ground impact of both medium and high level carpet bombing used by the Allies, the concentration camps, forced-labour camps, transit camps and the killing centres used by the Nazi regime and the Nuremberg trials that took place between 20th November 1945 to 1st October 1946.
Like many of his generation, Errol Barrow did not talk much about his wartime service in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) and left no autobiography or memoir.
Errol Barrow’s time in the RAF between 1940 to 1947 has been pieced together using:
His redacted Record of Service papers were released by the UK Ministry of Defence Headquarters Air Command, RAF Cranwell.
88 Squadron Operations Record Books, which are held by the UK National Archive at Kew:
– RAF Form 540 – which summarises daily operations by month
– RAF Form 541 – which lists by day the aircraft and crews that took part in daily operations.
RCAF training records.
The RAF logbook entries belonging to his pilots, F/O Andrew Cole RAF, S/L Geoff Norton RAF, and Wireless/Air gunner F/L Leo Leslie Schultz RAAF.
supplemented with stories from those who flew with him.
Errol Barrow’s story highlights the important contributions of men and women from the Caribbean who volunteered to serve in the RAF as pilots, navigators, flight engineers, air gunners, and ground crew during World War II.
When looking at West Indian World War II volunteers, a key question is what was their driving force. Outside of the UK, there was no compulsory conscription.
For some it might have been a deep love for the motherland as depicted by the Remembrance Sunday hymn “I vow to thee my country” which describes how a Christian owes his loyalties to both his homeland and the heavenly kingdom.
For the majority, like Errol Barrow, it was more likely that they joined up to lend support to the motherland. The alternative, should Hitler have defeated the motherland, was that Black people, like Jews and Roma (Gypsies) would be seen as inferior and undesirable subhumans (untermenschen) who would be deprived of their rights and most likely returned to slavery or “ethnically cleansed” as was happening in Germany and in the Nazi-occupied Eastern territories of Poland and the Soviet Union.
The newcomers from the Caribbean were joining an air force that had only abandoned the services’ “colour bar” against non-European enlistment in October 1939, in a time of need, and took racism seriously. An Air Ministry (RAF) Confidential Order of June 1944 was unequivocal:
“All ranks should clearly understand that there is no colour bar in the Royal Air Force… any instant of discrimination on grounds of colour by white officers or airmen or any attitude of hostility towards personnel of non-European descent should be immediately and severely checked.”
Source: RAF Museum Online Exhibitions – Pilots of the Caribbean: The Second World War, 1939 to 1945: Recruitment.
The rules against racial discrimination introduced by the RAF in the 1940s would not be seen in the civilian workplace until the 1970s.
The loss rate for those Caribbean volunteers who joined the RAF was 30%. For those that were part of RAF Bomber Command they had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I with a loss rate of 55% to 60%! The Second Contingent, which in 1940 recruited airmen from Barbados for the RAF, had a loss rate of 50%.
If you or a family member served in the RAF with Errol Barrow and you would like that story to be recorded, please click on the Contact Burts link to email BajanThings, and we will append your story below.
Peter Burton
Errol Barrow’s early life, 1920-1940
Errol Walton Barrow was born on 21st January 1920 in St. Lucy, Barbados, the fourth of five children of Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow (1889–1980) and Ruth Albertha O’Neal (maiden; 1884–1939). His uncle was Dr Charles Duncan O’Neal, a champion of social justice in Barbados. His sister, Dame Ruth Nita Barrow, was a champion of public health causes and would later become the first female Governor-General of Barbados.
(Courtesy of: The Barbados Public Library)
