Cricketer and politician. Born Learie Nicholas Constantine at Petit Valley, Diego Martin, near Maraval, Trinidad. As a cricketer, he toured England with the West Indies team in the 1920s and was eventually awarded a contract with the Lancashire League club, Nelson. During WW2 he worked for the Ministry of Labour and National Service with responsibility for West Indians employed in English factories. He returned to Trinidad in 1954, becoming a founder member of the People's National Movement. Knighted in 1962 and created the first black peer in 1969. Died in Brondesbury, Hampstead.
Appears in the short Ministry of Information film West Indies Calling. As a welfare officer working for the Ministry of Labour he promotes the wartime work being done by West Indian men and women in Britain.
2022: Reading a review of 'The Ten Legal Cases that Made Modern Britain' by Inigo Bing, we learnt that in 1943 Constantine and his family were effectively thrown out of the Imperial Hotel, with the manageress quoted as saying "we are not going to have these **** in our hotel, he can stop the night, but if he does not go tomorrow morning his luggage will be put outside his room and his door locked". Constantine took the hotel to court and Bing put the case in his book.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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