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 where 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 he helped to form the Saint Lucia Labour Party which 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. Charles served as minister of education and social welfare of Saint Lucia from 1954 to 1960. 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 his time as chief minister, the Labour Party spent most of the next three decades in opposition, but returned to power from 1979 to 1982 and from 1997 to 2006.
