Hugh Springer

{{Short description|Governor-general of Barbados (1913–1994)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Most Excellent | name = Sir Hugh Springer | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|post-noms=GCMG CBE }} | image = | office = 4th Governor-General of Barbados | monarch = Elizabeth II | prime_minister = Harold Bernard St. John <br /> Errol Barrow <br /> Lloyd Erskine Sandiford | term_start = 24 February 1984 | term_end = 6 June 1990 | predecessor = Deighton Lisle Ward | successor = Nita Barrow | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|06|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Saint Michael, Barbados | death_date = {{death date and age|1994|04|14|1913|06|22|df=y}} | death_place = Bridgetown, Barbados | spouse = Dorothy Gittens | children = | alma_mater = Harrison College<br />Hertford College, Oxford }} '''Sir Hugh Worrell Springer''' {{Post-nominals|post-noms=GCMG CBE }}<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=49669|date=9 March 1984 |page=3453 }}</ref> (22 June 1913 – 14 April 1994)<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Sir Hugh Springer|department=Obituaries |date=20 April 1994 |page=19 |issue=64933 |url= }}</ref> was the organiser and first general secretary of the Barbados Workers' Union, and Barbados' fourth governor-general.<ref>[http://www.rulers.org/indexs4.html Hugh Springer], Rulers.org</ref> He was a lawyer, politician and public servant.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/inpractice/portraiture/portrayingdiversity/|title=Portraying Diversity at Oxford, Equality and Diversity|last=Oxford|first=University of|website=www.admin.ox.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-date=2018-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915085014/http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/inpractice/portraiture/portrayingdiversity/|url-status=dead}}</ref> By an act of Parliament in 1998, Springer was named as one of the eleven National Heroes of Barbados.<ref name=Parl>{{Cite web|url=http://www.barbadosparliament.com/history.php |title=Parliament's History |author=Parliament of Barbados |author-link=Parliament of Barbados |year=2009 |publisher=Barbadosparliament.com |access-date=15 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523083154/http://www.barbadosparliament.com/history.php |archive-date=23 May 2007 }}</ref>

== Early life and education == Springer was educated at Harrison College in Bridgetown, Barbados. Upon receiving a Barbados Scholarship in Classics, Springer studied Greek as an undergraduate at Hertford College, University of Oxford, receiving a BA in 1936.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-hugh-springer-1433334.html|title=Obituary: Sir Hugh Springer|date=1994-05-03|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2019-01-27}}</ref>

== Career ==

=== Law and politics === He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1938, and subsequently returned to Barbados. He practised law in Barbados from 1938 to 1947.<ref name=":1" />

He co-founded the Progressive League with the barrister Grantley Adams. As General Secretary of the League, Springer transformed it into two initially closely related organisations, the Barbados Labour Party and the Barbados Workers' Union. From 1940 to 1947 he was the General Secretary of the Barbados Labour Party and also General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In 1940 he was elected to the House of Assembly.<ref name=":1" />

=== Higher education === Springer perceived Higher Education as vitally important for achieving regional cooperation and integration. He had previously sought employment in education in London in the 1930s, but was rejected on the basis of his ethnicity.<ref name=":1" /> In 1938 he taught Classics temporarily at Codrington College.<ref name=":1" /> He was a member of the Asquith Commission on Colonial Higher Education in 1943-4 and sat on the Provisional Council of the University College at Kingston which was founded as an outcome of the commission.<ref name=":1" /> In 1947 resigned from the Cabinet of Barbados and took up the position as the Registrar of the University College of West Indies, which he held until 1963, when he became Director until 1966.<ref name=":1" />

=== International politics === Following the collapse of the Federation of the West Indies in 1962, Springer dedicated time to considering regional politics.<ref name=":1" /> He received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fellowship of the Harvard Centre for International Affairs where he completed his 1962 book Reflections on the ''Failure of the First West Indian Federation''. During 1962-63 he was a Senior Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford.<ref name=":1" /> On returning to Barbados, Springer was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Education at the University of the West Indies.<ref name=":1" />

=== Commonwealth and international education === Springer dedicated much of the period from 1964–84 to the areas of commonwealth and international education. He was Assistant Secretary General (Education) at the Commonwealth Secretariat (1966–1970), and Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (1970–1980), and served as a Director of the United World Colleges (1978–1990).<ref name=":1" />

He was appointed Governor-General of Barbados in 1984, a position which he held until he retired due to ill-health in 1990.<ref name=":0" />

== Honors == Springer received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1976,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|title=Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates|website=www1.hw.ac.uk|access-date=2016-04-06|archive-date=2016-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418163907/http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was elected as an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford in 1974 and All Souls College in 1988,<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ry4nAgAAQBAJ&dq=honorary+fellow+hertford&pg=PA396 |title = Universities for a New World: Making a Global Network in International Higher Education, 1913-2013|isbn = 9788132117780|last1 = Schreuder|first1 = Deryck M.|date = 3 October 2013}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> where a portrait of Hugh Springer by Hector Whistler is now on display in the hall of the College.

Springer received a Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of New Brunswick in 1980.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://graduations.lib.unb.ca/degree/16630|title=Pomp and Circumstance {{!}} Graduation Ceremonies 1828 - Present|website=graduations.lib.unb.ca|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-date=2019-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421095817/https://graduations.lib.unb.ca/degree/16630|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1998, Hugh Springer was named as one of the ten Barbadian National Heroes, designated by the Order of National Heroes Act.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://barbados.org/people/heroes.htm#.XE2fUFz7RnJ|title=Barbados National Heroes {{!}} Barbados.org|website=barbados.org|access-date=2019-01-27}}</ref> A biography of Hugh Springer was published in 2008, authored by Kean H. W. Springer.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Truly a gentleman : the Right Excellent Sir Hugh Worrell Springer|last=W.|first=Springer, Kean H.|date=2013|publisher=Ian Randle Publishers|isbn=9789766377038|edition=Epub|location=Kingston|oclc=760141779}}</ref> A commemorative stamp of Hugh Springer was issued in 2016 as part of ‘The Builders of Barbados' series.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk/new-definitive-stamp-issue-from-barbados-january-2016-the-builders-of-barbados/|title=The Builders of Barbados - new definitive stamps January 2016 {{!}} Barbados Stamps|website=www.barbadosstamps.co.uk|access-date=2019-01-27}}</ref>

== Selected publications == Springer, H.W. 1962''. Reflections of the Failure of the First West Indian Federation.''

Springer, H. W. 1967 "University-Government Relationships in the West Indies ", in University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Collected Seminar Papers on Relations between Governments and Universities (London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://mrd.gov.bb/gallery_display.php?image=hugh_springer.jpg&curPage=0&id=27&title=Governors%20General%20of%20Barbados Photo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122192841/http://mrd.gov.bb/gallery_display.php?image=hugh_springer.jpg&curPage=0&id=27&title=Governors%20General%20of%20Barbados |date=2017-01-22 }}, Barbados Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation * [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Barbados.html Barbados], Worldstatesmen * [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-hugh-springer-1433334.html Obituary] * {{IMDb name|id=0819729}}

{{s-start}} {{s-npo|union}} {{succession box|title=General Secretary of the Barbados Workers' Union|years=1941–1947|before=''New position''|after=Frank Walcott}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=William Randolph Douglas}} {{s-ttl|title=Governor General of Barbados|years=1984–1990}} {{s-aft|after=Nita Barrow}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Springer, Hugh}} Category:1913 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Governors-general of Barbados Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:People educated at Harrison College (Barbados) Category:Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford