Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr. was the Father of the Nation of Antigua and Barbuda. In a tiled plaza at the intersection of Valley Road and All Saints Road a giant 25' long by 20' high painted bust of the first Premier of the nation is sculpted out of a terracotta base. The head, shoulders, chest and right arm of V.C. Bird Sr. dominate the plaza.
V.C. Bird Sr. is depicted as a middle-aged man with short cropped brown hair wearing a black business suit, gray vest, white shirt, red tie and gold tie clasp. His right arm is bent back with his open right hand resting on his right chest. In his left lapel is an Antigua and Barbuda flag pin.
In the red tiled plaza is inscribed in black:
SIR VERE CORNWALL BIRD
FATHER OF THE NATION
NATIONAL HERO
A document below his bust has his biography.
PROFILE OF SIR VERE CORNWALL BIRD SR.
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Father Of The Nation
Vere Cornwall Bird Snr. was born on the 9th December 1909, the third of four children. He has only an elementary education at the St. John's Boys School, but he was a man of immense intelligence. As a teenager he joined the Salvation Army and at the age of 21, he was Captain commanding persons older than himself. He was trained in Trinidad.
On the 16th of January 1939, he was elected to the Executive of the Antigua Trades and Labor Union. On the 26th February 1940, when the AT&LU received legal status, he was confirmed as an Executive Member. In 1945, he was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly. In 1951, the Union, under his leadership, established the right of the Union to negotiate for workers and for contracts to be signed with management.
He attended Caribbean trade union conferences in Trinidad in 1945, St. Kitts in 1946 and the famous Montego Bay Conference in Jamaica in 1947, which decided the creation of the West Indies Federation.
In 1951, the Union Representatives, led by V. C. Bird Snr. won all eight (8) of the elected seats in the legislature. V.C. Bird Snr. was made one of the three Chairmen of Committees in the Executive Council.
During the period 1951-1956, he established the Peasant Development Scheme under which people received farm lands and qualified for loans.
In 1953 and 1956, he was a delegate to the Conferences of West Indian Government at Lancaster House in London that worked out the mechanics of the West Indian Federation.
On 11th January 1960, V.C. Bird Snr. was appointed the first Chief Minister of Antigua. During the Nineteen Sixties (1960's), V.C. Bird Snr. led the move to diversify the Antigua & Barbuda economy. He introduced tourism and other service industries.
In 1967 V.C. Bird Snr. was appointed the Country's first Premier after Antigua & Barbuda was accorded the status of independence in association with Britain. In the 1971 general elections, V.C. Bird Snr. lost his seat and his party lost the government to the progressive Labour Movement (PLM) led by George Walter.
Five years later, in 1976, V.C. Bird Snr. was re-elected to parliament and his Antigua Labour Party formed the government. He led his party to another election victory in 1980, and that same year (1980) he went back to Lancaster House in London seeking full Independence for Antigua and Barbuda.
On 1st November 1984, Antigua and Barbuda became an independent nation and V.C. Bird Snr. became the first Prime Minister of his country. he led the Antigua Labour Party to two more general election victories in 1984 and 1989 finally retiring in march 1994 at the age of 83.
Vere Cornwall Bird Snr. died peacefully on Monday 28th June 1999 at the age of 89 years.