Sir Edward Trenton "ET" Richards (4 October 1908"Sir Edward “ET” Richards"
''Bernews''. – May 1991) was the first Black Bermudian to head the government of

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

and the first

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

. He was the leader of the

United Bermuda Party The United Bermuda Party (UBP) was a political party in Bermuda, which represented itself as centrist party with a moderate social and fiscal agenda. The party held power in Bermuda's House of Assembly continuously from 1968 to 1998, the 47-year ...

(UBP) between 1971 and 1973. He was a vocal critic of segregation.

Biography

Richards was born in

Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

,E. T. (Bob) Richards
"A centennial for a peaceful warrior"
''The Royal Gazette'', 10 October 2008. British Guiana (now

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

), the youngest of three siblings. After his mother died while he was an infant, he was raised by his father and grandmother. He trained as a teacher in Georgetown, and in 1930, at the age of 21, he joined his sister Pearl in Bermuda, where he taught mathematics, Latin and games at the Berkeley Institute."Black history month: Saluting our heroes – E.T. Richards: first black in BDA to receive a knighthood"
''Bermuda Sun'', 29 February 2008. He also worked as associate editor of the ''Bermuda Recorder'', and on its pages made known his opposition to segregation. He became a Bermudian citizen seven years after his arrival. In 1943 he went to Britain to study law at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. While studying in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, he assisted Dr.

E. F. Gordon Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon (20 March 1895 – 20 April 1955), born in Trinidad and Tobago, was a physician, parliamentarian, civil-rights activist and labour leader in Bermuda, and is regarded as the "father of trade unionism" there: "he championed ...

to present a celebrated petition from the Bermuda Workers' Association to the British Colonial Secretary in 1946. Richards was called to the UK bar in 1946 and to the Bermuda Bar on 31 January 1947, becoming the fourth black lawyer to practice in Bermuda. In 1948 he was elected to Parliament representing

Warwick Parish Warwick Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named after Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1587-1658). It is located in the central south of the island chain, occupying part of the main island to the southeast of the Great Soun ...

, serving in this position for the following two decades. In 1963, Richards welcomed

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

when Selassie visited Bermuda with his granddaughter Princess

Hirut Desta Princess Hirut Desta (also Princess Ruth Desta) was the daughter of ''Ras'' Desta Damtew and Princess Tenagnework Haile Selassie, and granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. She was the widow of General Nega Tegegn, who was governor ...

Political life

In 1968, he was appointed Deputy Government Leader and Deputy Leader of the UBP. In December 1971, he became Bermuda's first black Government Leader. In 1973, The Constitution Amendment (Consequential Amendments) Act 1973 changed the Government Leader's title to Premier. Richards held the position of Premier until December 1975. Sir Edward Richards retired from politics on 29 December 1975, and from law practice in 1986, at the age of 78. He died in May 1991 at the age of 83.

Honours and recognition

Richards was knighted by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

in 1970. Richards was a member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

fraternity. A portrait of Richards is one of 80 painted by Esther Dai for display at the Historic Museum in Bermuda. In June 2015, Richards and

Gladys Morrell Gladys Carlyon De Courcy Misick Morrell (2 June 1888 – 6 January 1969) was a Bermudian suffragette leader, who advocated for women's voting rights in Bermuda for 30 years, and founded the Bermuda Welfare Society.

were named National Heroes of Bermuda.

Family

In 1940 Richards married Madree Williams, with whom he had three children. His son, E. T. "Bob" Richards, is a politician and member of the

House of Assembly of Bermuda The House of Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. The house has 36 Members of Parliament (MPs), elected for a term of five years in single seat constituencies using first-past-the-post voting ...

for the

. His elder daughter is circuit judge Patricia Dangor, who now lives in London, England, with her children and grandchildren. His younger daughter is the writer Angela Barry,Kim Dismont Robinson
"The Atlantic Adventure"
(review of Angela Barry's ''Endangered Species''), ''The Bermudian''. who remains in Bermuda with her children and grandchildren.

References

External links