Sir Frederick Smith, KA,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, QC (6 July 1924 – 11 July 2016) was the former Attorney-General of Barbados and former Chief Justice of the

Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and n ...

1987-1990, President of the Court of Appeal of Grenada and assistant Attorney General of

British Cameroons British Cameroon or the British Cameroons was a British mandate territory in British West Africa, formed of the Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states of ...

. He was born in Barbados, the son of Cecil Gladstone Smith and his wife Lilian Angelique and was educated at

Combermere School Combermere School is a school in Barbados, notable as one of the oldest schools in the Caribbean, established in 1695. Its alumni include several leading cricketers, David Thompson, sixth prime minister of Barbados and other politicians, several ...

(1934 to 1936) and Harrison College (1936 to 1944). He went to the

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to study law at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1949 and established a private practice (Smith and Smith) upon returning to Barbados in 1952 with his brother Vernon Smith QC. He worked in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and directly with the

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Foreign Office on revising the Cayman Islands constitution. Smith was a founding member of the Barbados-based Democratic Labour Party. He served on the first Provisional General Council and as the first party Chairman from 1955 to 1956 after which he was elected to the

Barbados House of Assembly The House of Assembly of Barbados is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. It has 30 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple-majority (or first-past-the-post) syst ...

. He served as Attorney General of Barbados from 1966 to 1971. He briefly served as leader of the opposition and the DLP from 1976 until returning the mantle to the previous party leader

Errol Barrow Errol Walton Barrow (21 January 1920 – 1 June 1987) was a Barbadian statesman and the first prime minister of Barbados. Born into a family of political and civic activists in the parish of Saint Lucy, he became a WWII aviator, combat ve ...

in 1978. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in November 1987. Sir Frederick was outspoken in saying it is time for Barbados to do away with its affiliation with the Barbadian monarchy and to become an independent republic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Frederick 1924 births 2016 deaths Members of Gray's Inn Members of the Order of the British Empire Knights and Dames of St Andrew (Barbados) Barbadian knights Barbadian republicans Attorneys-General of Barbados Barbadian Queen's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel Leaders of the Democratic Labour Party (Barbados) Barbadian independence activists Chief justices of the Turks and Caicos Islands Barbadian judges on the courts of the Turks and Caicos Islands Barbadian judges on the courts of Grenada Republicanism in Barbados People educated at Harrison College (Barbados) Barbadian expatriates in the United Kingdom Barbadian expatriates in Jamaica