Background
Paul Southwell was born on 18 July 1913 in Dominica.
government official politician
Paul Southwell was born on 18 July 1913 in Dominica.
He completed elementary school and became a pupil teacher.
He gained a teacher's certificate and continued to teach until January 1938 when he joined the Leeward Islands Police Force and was stationed in St. Kitts. He remained in the force until 1944, resigning to go to work in the only sugar factory in St. Kitts. There he met Robert Bradshaw, president of the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union, immediately became involved in the activities of the union, was elected its vice president and organizer in 1947, while retaining his job at the factory.
Southwell also became active in the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Labour Party, also headed by Bradshaw. In 1952 he won a seat in the Legislative Council. In 1956 the Labour Party won five of eight elective seats under a revised constitution that ushered in a quasi-ministerial system, under which St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla were combined into a separate colony. Southwell again won election and was appointed minister of works and communications, a position he held for three years.
Bradshaw, meanwhile, involved in federal politics, gave up his post in the St. Kitts Legislature after being elected to the Federal House in March 1957, and became federal minister of finance the following year. Southwell assumed the party leadership and became a member of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Executive Council. He was appointed chief minister at the inauguration of the ministerial system of government in February I960 and led the party to another electoral victory in 1961.
Bradshaw, back in St. Kitts after the collapse of the West Indies Federation in 1962, resumed his position on the Legislative Council. However, Southwell remained chief minister until 1966. when Bradshaw, who was again party leader, became chief minister following another electoral victory.
When St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla was granted Associated Statehood in 1967, Southwell became deputy premier and minister of trade, industry, and tourism. Upon Bradshaw’s death in May 1978, he became party leader and premier. He died suddenly in May 1979.