Sir Robert Hall (1909–1994) was a politician of

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two ...

. Hall was an opponent of the dominant

Antigua Labour Party The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) is a political party in Antigua and Barbuda. The current leader of the party is Gaston Browne, who serves as the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. The party had previously been led by Lester Bird ...

throughout his career. He was politically active mainly during Antigua and Barbuda's time as a West Indies Associated State.

Career

During the 1960s, Hall led the Antigua and Barbuda Democratic Movement. This very loose political organisation was most significant for the role it allowed Hall to play in the creation of the

Progressive Labour Movement The Progressive Labour Movement was a major centre-left political party in Antigua and Barbuda and, until the 2000s, was the only political party to have defeated the Antigua Labour Party in an election. History The party was established in 196 ...

(PLM) in 1968. After the party won four by-elections, it became Antigua and Barbuda's first parliamentary opposition party. Hall was the first leader of this party and the first Leader of the Opposition in the state, but he relinquished this role to

George Walter Sir George Herbert Walter, KNH (8 September 1928 – 4 March 2008) was an Antiguan politician of the Progressive Labour Movement and Premier of Antigua and Barbuda from 14 February 1971 to 1 February 1976. Political career Born 1928, Walter ...

before the 1971 general election. Hall served as Deputy Premier of Antigua during the Progressive Labour Movement government of 1971–76, and during that period he was also the first Minister for Agriculture in the state. Agricultural policy had been divided among several separate civil service bodies during the previous administration. His flagship policy was diversification of agriculture away from the archipelago's heavy dependence on sugar exports, and to increase the cultivation of other crops, such as the

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centurie ...

. Hall assumed the leadership of the Progressive Labour Movement for a second time in time for the 1980 general election, due to the electoral defeat and subsequent imprisonment of his predecessor,

, on false corruption charges relating to PLM economic mismanagement. Though a free man by 1980, Walter had been barred from participating in the election. This oppression diminished the appeal of opposition parties, and Hall left the legislature in 1984, three years after the full independence of Antigua and Barbuda. Hall died in 1994, and was posthumously knighted by the United Progressive Party government that came to power in 2004. Outside politics, Hall was a planter and farmer, as well as a former civil servant in the field of agriculture. He was a White Antiguan.

References

1909 births 1994 deaths Progressive Labour Movement politicians Government ministers of Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda people of British descent {{Antigua-politician-stub