George Charles
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Sir George Frederick Lawrence Charles (June 7, 1916–June 26, 2004) was a Saint Lucian politician.
After his education at Saint Mary's College, Charles went to Aruba.
There he worked for an oil company for a year and became involved in trade-union activities. During the 1940s, he became an important trade-union leader in Saint Lucia.
In 1950, Charles helped form the Saint Lucia Labour Party. That party immediately became the dominant party on Saint Lucia. He and his party had a moderate socialist agenda, emphasizing workers' rights and more autonomy or independence for Saint Lucia, which was then being ruled by the United Kingdom. From 1954 to 1960, Charles served as Minister of Education and Social Welfare in Saint Lucia. In January 1960, when Saint Lucia gained more autonomy, Charles became the first ever chief minister of the island.
Charles was chief minister until April 1964, when the government fell and Labour lost elections for the first time. From then on, Charles played a much less active role in politics.
After Charles' time as chief minister, the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLLP) spent most of the next three decades in opposition. The SLLP returned to power from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1997 to 2006.
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