The Tribune

FAMILY, friends and political colleagues paid tribute yesterday to former House of Assembly Speaker James Oswald Ingraham, who died last month.

Mr Ingraham was Speaker during the second Christie administration, and also served as deputy governor-general. He was also the member of Parliament for South Eleuthera for 10 years, from 2002-2012.

His body laid in state in the House of Assembly yesterday.

Yesterday, former Prime Minister and PLP leader Perry Christie praised him as a giant of a man who left an indelible mark in his hometown in Eleuthera and the Bahamian society at large.

“He distinguished himself in all sorts of ways,” he said. “He was a community leader who participated in everything that was important to Eleuthera. Thirdly, he was a businessman and he really was very successful in a defining way.

“So, Oswald, in any way we would wish to define him, when he became a political representative had already had incredible success in his life. From a point of view of marriage, when you saw one you saw the other and I think he was one person if you wanted to define what marriage should be like, you could look to him as an exemplar as that.

“And finally, in politics, he came to politics late but he came very qualified. For all the reasons I described, he was immensely qualified to represent South Eleuthera and we were honoured as a parliament to elect him Speaker of the House of Assembly.”

PLP leader Phillip “Brave” Davis also remembered the former parliamentarian as an agent of change.

“Well, you know Mr Ingraham played his part in the struggle for majority rule. He did so as a campaigner and as a very strong supporter of the then Phillip Bethel who was elected back in ‘67 thereabouts or ‘68, but he was always in the vanguard of change,” he told reporters yesterday. “He later stepped up and became a front-liner by offering himself as a candidate for (the PLP) and he served well as the MP for South Eleuthera.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker Halson Moultrie added: “He set a standard for all of us who succeeded him in this position. I happen to be the 54th Speaker of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

“But I met the honourable James Oswald Ingraham several years ago on my trips into Eleuthera and I can tell you just about everyone I spoke with in Eleuthera spoke so highly of his patriotic commitment to the development of his communities in Eleuthera and as a family islander myself, hailing from Great Inagua, I can tell you how important that is to have committed persons who are successful like the former Speaker James Oswald Ingraham.

“And I think as a patriotic Bahamian, the Bahamas has lost one of its better sons and Eleuthera has definitely lost a very patriotic Eleutheran.”

Mr Ingraham, who died at 83, leaves behind his wife, Marie, several children and extended family in the community of Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera.