Lawrence Whitfield Major
Open-knowledge reference entry
Lawrence Whitfield Major (died 2008) was a senior police officer in the Bahamas. He joined the police in 1950 and helped to disperse a crowd gathered to support Lynden Pindling's protest at the House of Assembly in 1965. Major was appointed to lead the police's Marine Division in 1971 and helped to raid drug smugglers operating from the islands. He retired as assistant commissioner in 1980 and later served as superintendent of the national prison department.
Police career
Whitfield joined the Bahamas' police force in 1950 and in 1962 he was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct. The commendation was awarded for actions, as a sergeant, during "the arrest of an armed and dangerous criminal". On 26 April 1964, a day known in the Bahamas as Black Tuesday, Inspector Major led the enforcement of the Riot Act by dispersing a crowd that had gathered at the House of Assembly. The crowd had assembled in support of the Progressive Liberal Party whose leader, Lynden Pindling, had thrown the speaker's mace out of the house. Pindling was protesting the drawing up of constituency boundaries that had, in the 1962 Bahamian general election (the first in the territory under universal suffrage), given his part a minority of seats despite winning a majority of the vote. Major, vastly outnumbered and armed only with a truncheon and wicker shield, was assisted by Pindling, who enjoined his followers to follow non-violent means, in dispersing the crowd.
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