Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Dr. Ivan Lloyd (centre), Minister of Education and Social Welfare, attends a reception hosted by the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association, in 1955. From left are Mr. and Mrs. Eric Frater, Joyce Baxter and Dorothy Rhondell-Francis. - File photo
STANDING AT just over five feet with a receding hairline, Ivan Lloyd could never qualify for the Mr. Universe contest. Commitment to community, party and country, however, made him one of Jamaica's most respected politicians.
Lloyd, a medical doctor, died on August 2, 1993 as Jamaicans observed the country's Independence from Great Britain. He was 90 years old.
Recently, there has been indirect resurgence in interest in Dr. Lloyd due to the furore over the selection of former Miss World Lisa Hanna, as the People's National Party's (PNP) candidate for South East St. Ann.
Lloyd represented the people of that constituency for 25 years. His reputation in his adopted hometown of Claremont helped make him one of the most successful candidates in Jamaica's political history. That standing also made Eastern St. Ann (later South East St. Ann) a PNP bastion.
"He was a very quiet and unassuming fellow, in an old-fashioned Jamaican way," said journalist John Maxwell, who first met Lloyd as a boy. "Anybody could meet Dr. Lloyd and talk to him."
Yet, this PNP pioneer and heavyweight eventually fell out of favour with his beloved party. In 1969, the conservative Lloyd resigned his seat in Parliament, citing differences with the firebrand Michael Manley who succeeded his father, Norman, as party president.
Track record in politics
Maxwell recalls Lloyd backing his son Garland to replace him in South East St. Ann. The party's National Executive Council saw things differently, saying Garland had no track record in politics.
Lloyd rubbed salt into the proverbial wound when he supported Garland who contested the constituency on a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ticket. He was trounced by the PNP's Seymour Mullings who went on to represent South East St. Ann for 22 years.
Maxwell said things were never the same between Lloyd and the party he once led in Parliament.
"No one liked what happened because Dr. Lloyd served the party so well, but once you set up yourself against the PNP for another party, you've had it," said Maxwell.
Ivan Lloyd, the hero of South East St. Ann, was actually born in the district of Hatfield, Manchester, where his father, Jethro, was a respected educator.
During the 1930s, Lloyd studied at two American colleges: City College of New York and the all-black Howard University. He returned to Jamaica later that decade and was assigned to Claremont which he served as town doctor for several decades.
Although he was an accomplished medical career, Lloyd is best known for politics. He was the PNP's first elected official, for what was then the Legislative Council in 1942. When Norman Manley lost his Eastern St. Andrew seat to the JLP's Edward H. Fagan in the 1944 election, Lloyd led the PNP in the House for five years.
After Manley became Chief Minister in 1955, Lloyd was appointed Minister of Education. He also served as Minister of Home Affairs (1957) and Minister of Health from 1959 to 1962.
Ivan Lloyd left politics in 1969, at odds with some members in the party he helped develop. However, the respect he earned from colleagues and rivals, remained. In 1970, the JLP Government of Prime Minister Hugh Shearer awarded him the Order of Distinction. In 1992, the PNP Government led by P.J. Patterson awarded Lloyd the Order of Jamaica.
