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Bust of the Rt. Hon. Sir Alexander Bustamante (1884-1977), political activist and freedom fighter in Jamaica in the 1920s and 1930s, who founded the Jamaica Labour Party in 1943 and became prime minister from 1962 to 1967. The Jamaican-born artist Errol Lloyd was commissioned by friends of the Jamaica Labour Party to sculpt the bust of Sir Alexander in 1965. It was was presented to the Commonwealth Institute on the 2nd September 1967. Mr Lloyd recalls: 'The Commonwealth Institute were involved because the bust was intended to be part of the Jamaica national display booth at the Institute, as each Commonwealth member had its own display booth, and provided its own contents. The bust was on permanent display in this booth (regardless of changes of government in Jamaica) and only ceased to be displayed with the closing down of the Institute in 2002.  Around that time the Jamaican High Commissioner to Britain was a member of the Jamaica Labour Party which was in power.  His name was Birchell Whiteman, an old school friend of mine, and it was he who retrieved the bust from the Commonwealth Institute storage facility in Bristol after the Institute’s artefacts had been placed there following its closure.  He would have been able to do this on the basis that the legal ownership of the bust rested with the Friends of the Jamaica Labour Party.  He then transported the bust to Jamaica, where it is now housed in the Bustamante Institute, the property of the Jamaica Labour Party. The Lambeth connection can be explained in that the chair of the Friends of the Jamaica Labour Party, Courtney Laws, was based in Brixton and was for many years a leading community leader from the days when there were no West Indian councillors or MP’s.' From the Harry Jacobs archive collection.  Ref: IV/233 SP9000.
Copyright: The individual copyrights rest with the persons who commissioned each photograph. We have been unable to locate most holders to seek permission for use, but would be very pleased to hear from anyone who is a copyright holder, or can identify individuals in the photograph.

Details
Collection:	Harry Jacobs Photographer
Image type:	Photograph
Artist:	Harry Jacobs
Ref:	05901
Identifier:	IV/233 SP9000
Date:	1967

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