LLearie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, Kt., was a West Indian cricket legend, barrister, author, broadcast journalist, and political activist. He served as Trinidad’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became Britain’s first Black peer.
Constantine played 18 Test matches before the Second World War and took the West Indies’ first wicket in Test cricket. His exceptional performance at Lord’s in 1928—where he took 100 wickets and scored 1,000 runs—led to an invitation to become a professional cricketer with Nelson Cricket Club in the Lancashire League. A lifelong advocate against racial discrimination, he later played an influential role in the passage of Britain’s Race Relations Act. He was knighted in 1962 and created a life peer in 1969.
Constantine was born in Petit Valley, a village near Diego Martin in north-west Trinidad, on 21 September 1901. He was the second child in the family and the eldest of three brothers. His father, Lebrun Constantine, was the grandson of enslaved people. Lebrun rose to become an overseer on a cocoa estate in Cascade, near Maraval, where the family moved in 1906.
Lebrun was well known throughout Trinidad as a cricketer. He represented Trinidad in first-class cricket and toured England twice with a West Indian team. Constantine’s mother, Anaise Pascall, was also the daughter of enslaved people. Her brother, Victor Pascall, was a Trinidad and West Indian first-class cricketer; another family member, Constantine’s brother Elias, later represented Trinidad as well.
Constantine later wrote that, although his family was not wealthy, his childhood was a happy one. He spent much of his time playing in the hills near his home and on the estates where his father and grandfather worked. He developed a love of cricket early in life, and family members regularly practised together under the guidance of Lebrun Constantine and Victor Pascall.
Constantine first attended St Ann’s Government School in Port of Spain, before going on to St Ann’s Roman Catholic School, where he remained until 1917. He showed little enthusiasm for formal learning and did not attain a high academic standard. However, he excelled at several sports and commanded respect because of his cricketing lineage.
He played for the school cricket team, which he captained during his final two years. By then, he had developed a reputation as an attacking batsman, a capable fast-medium bowler, and an outstanding fielder. His father prohibited him from playing competitive club cricket until 1920, fearing that premature exposure to top-class opposition would hinder his development. Lebrun also hoped that his son would first establish himself in a professional career.
After leaving school, Constantine joined Jonathan Ryan, a firm of solicitors in Port of Spain, as a clerk. This offered a possible route into the legal profession. Yet, as a member of Trinidad’s Black lower-middle class, he was unlikely to advance very far. Few Black Trinidadians became solicitors at that time, and he faced considerable social restrictions because of his colour.
Cricket career
Constantine followed in his father’s footsteps to become a first-class cricketer for the West Indies. In 1923, the young Constantine played alongside Lebrun against British Guiana in Georgetown—one of the few occasions on which a father and son have appeared together in a first-class match.
As a cricketer, Constantine became one of the game’s most exciting all-rounders and one of its finest fielders. He was a member of the West Indies teams that toured England in 1923 and 1928.
Frustrated by the lack of opportunities available to Black people in Trinidad, Constantine decided to pursue a career as a professional cricketer in England. During the 1928 tour, he secured a professional contract with Nelson Cricket Club in the Lancashire League, for which he was paid £500 a year.
In 1930, playing for the West Indies against England, Constantine helped bowl the West Indies to their first Test-match victory. He played for Nelson with great distinction between 1929 and 1938, while continuing to represent the West Indies in Test tours of England and Australia.
Although his Test record was less remarkable than his performances in league and first-class cricket, Constantine helped establish a distinctive West Indian style of play: dynamic, athletic, confident, and entertaining. His performances in the Lancashire League were so exceptional that he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1939.
Constantine settled in Lancashire with his wife and daughter. He met his wife, Norma Agatha Cox, in 1921. Initially, Norma had little interest in cricket, but she later became increasingly invested in his sporting achievements. They married on 25 July 1927, and their only child, Gloria, was born in April 1928. Throughout their marriage, Norma encouraged Constantine’s efforts to advance his career, and the couple remained close.
Black people were still a novelty in Lancashire, and the Constantines endured rudeness, anonymous letters, and intrusive curiosity. Nevertheless, they persevered and gradually earned the respect, admiration, and friendship of local people.
C. L. R. James was their lodger for a time and helped Constantine write his first book, Cricket and I, published in 1933. During Constantine’s nine years with Nelson, the club won the Lancashire League championship seven times.
Law and racial justice
In 1942, while working in a solicitor’s office, Constantine was asked by the Ministry of Labour to become a temporary civil servant in its welfare department. He was given responsibility for West Indian technicians employed in factories on Merseyside. His organisational ability, public prestige, experience of Lancashire, and racial background made him particularly suited to supporting West Indians as they adjusted to industrial and social life in Britain.
His cricketing fame, however, did not protect him from racial discrimination. In 1944, Constantine became the first Black person to successfully bring a legal case against a service establishment that had barred customers because of their colour.
The case arose in 1943, when Constantine was granted four days’ leave to captain the West Indies against England at Lord’s. Before his arrival, the Imperial Hotel assured him that there would be no objection to his colour, and he paid a deposit. However, when he arrived with his family, it became clear that they were not welcome.
Constantine brought an action against the Imperial Hotel for breach of contract. He won the case after the hotel was found to have failed to receive and lodge him and his family because of their colour. The judge accepted Constantine’s evidence without hesitation and rejected that of the defendants. In the witness box, Constantine conducted himself with modesty and dignity, answering questions intelligently and truthfully. He was awarded £5 in damages.
The decision did not end the colour bar in British hotels, restaurants, or other public establishments. In 1946, for example, two Sikh Victoria Cross recipients were refused admission to a West End restaurant. Nevertheless, Constantine’s case was a landmark in the struggle against racial discrimination in Britain.
Constantine and C. L. R. James later wrote Colour Bar (1954), an insider’s account of discrimination and racial prejudice in Britain. From his earliest years in England, Constantine continued to advocate for the equal rights of people of colour.
In 1963, alongside national figures including Tony Benn and Harold Wilson, he spoke out during the Bristol Bus Boycott. The boycott challenged the Bristol Omnibus Company’s refusal to employ Black and Asian workers. Constantine supported the 60-day campaign led locally by Paul Stephenson, which continued until the colour bar was lifted.
Constantine was also a member of the League of Coloured Peoples, an organisation dedicated to combating racial discrimination, and later became its president.
Public service and legacy
After retiring from first-class cricket, Constantine worked for the BBC as a freelance commentator, an interest he had first developed during the 1930s. He also wrote several books on cricket, including Cricket and I (1933), Cricket Crackers (1949), and The Young Cricketer’s Companion (1964). His principal non-cricket book, Colour Bar (1954), examined British race relations from a Black perspective.
Following his work during the Second World War as a welfare officer for the Ministry of Labour and National Service in Liverpool, Constantine qualified as a barrister in 1954. By this time, he had also established himself as a journalist and broadcaster.
He returned to Trinidad in 1954, entered politics, and became a founding member of the People’s National Movement. He subsequently joined the Trinidad government as Minister of Communications, Works and Public Utilities.
In 1962, Constantine returned to England as Trinidad’s High Commissioner, serving until 1964. That same year, he was granted a knighthood. In 1964, at the age of 63, he began practising law as a barrister.
During his final years, Constantine served on the Race Relations Board, the Sports Council, and the BBC Board of Governors. Failing health reduced his effectiveness in some of these positions, and he faced criticism from some quarters for becoming part of the British establishment.
In 1967, Constantine was appointed rector of the University of St Andrews in Fife, becoming the first Black person to hold the office. In 1969, he was granted a life peerage as Baron Constantine of Maraval and Nelson, becoming the first Black man appointed to the House of Lords.
Learie Constantine died from a heart attack on 1 July 1971, following a period of illness caused by lung disease. He was 69 years old. He was buried in Trinidad and was posthumously awarded the Trinity Cross, the country’s highest honour. His wife, Norma, died two months later.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learie_Constantine
http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/lord_leary_constantine.html
http://historicalgeographies.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/biography-learie-constantine.html
