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Veteran educator and former parliamentarian Sybil Leacock passed away this morning at the age of 96, following a brief illness.
She was the founder of Leacock’s Private School, which stood as a beacon of hope and opportunity for families across northern Barbados for decades.
In 1968, she was appointed a Justice of the Peace and, in 1975, former Prime Minister Errol Walton Barrow appointed her to the Senate of Barbados.
Though unsuccessful in the general elections of 1976 and 1981, her perseverance was rewarded when she won the 1984 by-election on a Democratic Labour Party ticket.
During that historic by-election, Sybil Leacock and first-time candidate Owen Arthur received an equal number of votes, and a recount was requested by one of the election agents.
The returning officer consented to a recount, and it was agreed that 4 p.m. on July 20, 1984, would be acceptable to all parties to begin the process.
The recount lasted eighteen hours and ended with Ms Leacock gaining a majority of one vote over Mr Arthur.
A second recount was requested but was refused by the returning officer.
Following the declaration of the results and the return of Mrs Leacock as the elected representative for the constituency, an election petition was filed in the Supreme Court by Mr Arthur.
The court ruled that errors by election officials affected the result of the election and, as such, declared the election null and void.
Another election was held and was won by Mr Arthur, who went on to become the longest-serving Prime Minister in independent Barbados.
This remains the only time since Independence that an election has been overturned.
In a tribute, Democratic Labour Party political leader Ralph Thorne said today the people of St. Peter, and all of Barbados, mourn the passing of a true daughter of the soil, whose life enriched every space she entered and every life she touched.
