Portal:Trinidad and Tobago/Selected biography/1

Eric Williams was educated at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain. He won an island scholarship in 1932 which allowed him to attend St Catherine's Society, Oxford. He was ranked first in the First Class of Oxford students in 1935 and graduated in history. On 15 January 1956 he established his own political party, the People's National Movement. At the time of the Federation Williams famous speech declared that one from ten leaves nought. In 1961 the PNM had introduced the Representation of the People Bill. He was known as the Father of the Nation. Williams made Trinidad and Tobago as an independent nation in 1962, when it ceded from the United Kingdom and was the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, which office he retained until his death in 1981.