Bruce Golding

Orette Bruce Golding was born on the 5th of December 1947, a former Jamaican politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of Jamaica from the 11th September 2007 to the 23rd of October 2011.

 

When he was only two years old, his family moved to St. Faith’s district near Browns Hall, St. Catherine where he spent five years of his life. In 1955, his mother accepted a teaching post at Alpha Academy in Kingston. This necessitated that the family relocate to Kingston.

 

Golding was the founder of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He was formerly the chairman of the JLP before he and others felt the need to split and form the new NDM in 1995. In 2002, he rejoined the JLP and in November 2003 was again elected chairman of the Party.

 

Bruce Golding was the third of four children, Trevor being the first, the second, a girl who died shortly after birth, and Anthony all born in Ginger Ridge. According to research he was actually born in Clarendon at the home of his godmother, Winifred Stewart, mother of Mrs Percival Broderick.

 

He was enrolled in Watermount Elementary School at the age of five, two years younger than the normal enrolment age; the then principal was early childhood education pioneer D.R.B. Grant. In January of 1954 he was sent to live for six months with his aunt at Skibo in Portland. 

 

During his stay he attended the Skibo Elementary School. He then returned to St. Faiths District and attended the Macca Tree Elementary School where his father was principal. However, a few days after his birth on December 5, 1947, he was taken to the family home at Ginger Ridge where he was officially registered.

 

He was elected leader of the JLP, and also the leader of the opposition, on 20 February 2005, succeeding Edward Seaga. Golding is a second-generation member of the JLP. His father, Tacius Golding, served as a Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1962.

 

In 1972 Bruce Golding was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Jamaica. The year 1974 saw him being elected General Secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party. Mr. Golding was not re-elected as Member of Parliament for the West St. Catherine seat in the 1976 General Election.

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Bruce Golding has pledged to give more independence to Jamaica’s central bank, to tackle crime and corruption, and to draft a new charter of fundamental rights.

 

In 1969 less than three weeks after completing his final exams at the UWI, Golding was selected as the candidate for West St Catherine at a special conference of the JLP in that constituency.

 

Following the 1980 elections Golding was reappointed to the Senate and at 32 years appointed Minister of Construction in the new JLP government. He is married to Lorna Golding and has three children: Sherene, Steven, and Ann-Merita.

 

On 25 September 2011, Golding advised the JLP’s Central Executive the second highest decision-making body for the party outside the All-Island General Conference of his intention not to seek re-election as Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party at the party’s conference in November 2011 and, upon the election of a new party leader, his intention to step down as Prime Minister of Jamaica.

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