The Tribune

FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham expressed deep sadness over the death of former journalist and columnist P Anthony White.

Calling him a political comrade and a personal friend, Mr Ingraham said Mr White was an exceptionally well-read and insightful political commentator, and a man of great personal faith.

He died on Tuesday evening at Doctors Hospital of complications following a surgery.

A devout Anglican, Mr White was born in the Bahamas and educated in the United States before returning home to work as a columnist.

His “biting criticism” of the Pindling administration during the 1970s won him the ire of that government, Mr Ingraham said.

Mr White subsequently relocated to the Cayman Islands and later to the Seychelles in the South Pacific where he lived and worked for 11 years and established the Government News Bureau.

“An independent spirit, P Anthony had contacts in all political circles and in every segment of Bahamian life,” the former Prime Minister said. “He was perpetually ‘a young man’ who kept his hand on the pulse of our country. He can be credited with documenting many old Bahamian stories and providing personal histories for countless Bahamian men and women who helped to shape the modern Bahamas.

“He was in many respects the official wordsmith for the Free National Movement when I joined the party in 1990, and he was of at the height of his game when he assisted the party in framing our message to the Bahamian people in the lead up to the 1992 general election. I know that he believed his long years ‘fighting the good fight’ were vindicated by the FNM’s victory in 1992.

“He continued to provide writing services for the FNM, for me and for other members of each of the governments which I lead in the years that followed.

“Especially in the early days of the FNM government it was not uncommon for P Anthony to review a speech and to offer a tweak of a phrase or a poignant quote to strengthen a point.

“We have truly lost an exceptionally gifted Bahamian: a man of great intellectual curiosity, a steadfast friend and a man of great faith.

“P Anthony will be sadly missed by family, friends and colleagues. On my own behalf and that of my wife Delores and our family I convey deepest sympathy to his son Earl Anthony and to his daughters Dr Adair White-Johnson, Caroline Russell and Tuesday White, and to all his extended family,” Mr Ingraham said.