BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Prime Minister Mia Mottley has praised the contribution of former Prime Minister Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, who died on Monday at the age of 86, describing him as a true statesman who served Barbados with honour and the wider Caribbean with distinction.

In a statement on its official Facebook page, the main Opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), which Sandiford headed, said the DLP “family mourns the passing of Sir Lloyd, 1937 – 2023, former prime minister of Barbados and leader of the Democratic Labour Party.

The party said it was Sir Lloyd who seriously began the task of restructuring and repositioning the economy after the crisis of the early 1990s.

“Many things will be written about Sir Lloyd’s passing, his tenure as Barbados’s fourth prime minister, his role in shaping the Democratic Labour Party, in modernising education, reforming Barbados’s economy and, in his later years, opening doors to China as the country’s first ambassador to China.

“However, what must be powerfully stated and remembered about our statesman, Sir Lloyd was a Barbadian patriot at his core. He left public life with an unblemished character and reputation, always putting country first. If you look up a definition of patriot and nation builder, you will find his name and his picture,” the DLP added.

Before ascending to the highest political office on the death of Prime Minister Errol Barrow on June 1, 1987, Sir Lloyd had long been credited as the most significant post-independence education minister, particularly in developing the Barbados Community College and opening new primary and secondary schools.

His brainchild, the development of Sherbourne as a national examination centre, eventually became the island’s premier convention centre which bears his name, the Lloyd Erksine Sandiford Conference Centre.

In her tribute Mottley, who is on an official visit to China, said “it is with a sense of deep sadness that I say goodbye to yet another Barbadian nation builder, a true statesman, and without doubt a true gentleman of post-independence Barbadian politics”.

Mottley said the late former prime minister, who served as Barbados’s fourth head of government and was known affectionately as Sandi, had the distinction of maintaining a political career of more than three decades without a single instance in which bad behaviour or the use of the robust language and colourful metaphors so common to Caribbean politics, were attached to his name.