Ronald Webster

Who is Ronald Webster?

James Ronald Webster, generally known as Ronald Webster, was an Anguillian political leader remembered as the central figure of the 1967 Anguillian Revolution. At the time, Anguilla had been administratively joined with St Kitts and Nevis under a single associated state, a union deeply unpopular among Anguillians, who felt neglected and under-represented by the government in Basseterre. In May 1967 Webster helped lead a peaceful uprising that expelled the St Kitts police presence from the island and declared Anguilla's separation from the union, an event still commemorated annually as Anguilla Day. He subsequently traveled to lobby the British government directly, arguing for Anguilla to be administered separately by the United Kingdom rather than through St Kitts-Nevis. Britain placed Anguilla under direct rule in 1969 and, following further negotiation, formally separated the island through the Anguilla Act of 1980. Webster went on to serve as Chief Minister of Anguilla in the territory's early self-governing administrations, helping establish its post-separation institutions. He is widely honored in Anguilla as a founding figure of the modern territory and is sometimes referred to as the Father of the Nation.

Sources: Donald E. Westlake, Under an English Heaven (Simon & Schuster, 1972) · Colville Petty, Anguilla: Tranquil Isle of the Caribbean (Anguilla National Trust) · Government of Anguilla, official Anguilla Day commemorations and national history records