Background
Donald Sangster was born into a middle-class farming family on 26 October 1911 in Saint Elizabeth.
Donald Sangster was born into a middle-class farming family on 26 October 1911 in Saint Elizabeth.
He attended one of the country’s premier secondary schools and completed studies to become a soltcrtur in 1937.
His political career began in 1933, when he was elected to the local government council of the parish of St. Elizabeth.
When universal adult suffrage was introduced in 1944, Sangster failed to win a seat in the House of Representatives. In 1949 he joined the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), won a seat in the House, and was immediately appointed minister for social welfare. He was appointed deputy leader of the JLP in 1950, and minister of finance and leader of the House in 1963. In 1955 Sangster lost his seat in a general election which the JLP lost to the People’s National Party (PNP). He was reelected the following year.
Sangster was fiercely loyal to the leader of the JLP, Sir William Alexander Bustamante. This loyalty was demonstrated over the issue of federation, which Sangster advocated and supported although most JLP leaders did not. He played an active role in the first two years of the federal government, which was formally inaugurated in 1958. However, in 1960 he supported the party leadership’s position that the country should secede from the union, in spite of his own personal preference.
In 1965 Bustamante became so incapacitated that Sangster assumed the post of acting prime minister until the prime minister retired two years later.
After Bustamante retired, Sangster called general elections in February, 1967. His party won an overwhelming victory. In March of the same year, however, Donald Sangster suffered a cerebral seizure from which he never recovered.