The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Jamaica

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This page contains a list of the greatest Jamaican Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 11 of which were born in Jamaica. This makes Jamaica the birth place of the 141st most number of Politicians behind Mauritania, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Jamaican Politicians of all time. This list of famous Jamaican Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Jamaican Politicians.

Photo of Stamford Raffles

1. Stamford Raffles (1781 - 1826)

With an HPI of 65.71, Stamford Raffles is the most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 53 different languages on wikipedia.

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles was involved in the capture of the Indonesian island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned under the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1814. He also wrote The History of Java in 1817, describing the history of the island from ancient times. The Rafflesia flowers were named after him. Raffles also played a role in further establishing the British Empire's reach in East and Southeast Asia. He secured control over the strategically located Singapore from local rulers in 1819 to secure British access along the Strait of Singapore and the nearby seas in the region, particularly the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. His actions were initially not endorsed by the British government and led to tensions between the British and the Dutch. The Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1824 established their respective spheres of influence, the Dutch relinquishing their claims to Singapore while the British ceded Bencoolen to them. An entrepôt was subsequently established in Singapore for maritime trade between Europe and Asia. While Raffles was largely credited for the founding of contemporary Singapore, the early running of day-to-day operations was mostly done by William Farquhar, who served as the first Resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823. Raffles soon returned to England in 1824, where he died on his birthday in 1826 at the age of 45. His legacy while complex remains significant in Singapore, most notably the Raffles's Landing Site, as well as his name being a common sight in numerous entities and institutions throughout the country. Others have argued against excessive reverence as he was an imperialist who projected colonialism onto the population of Singapore that predated his arrival.

Photo of Portia Simpson-Miller

2. Portia Simpson-Miller (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 47.91, Portia Simpson-Miller is the 2nd most famous Jamaican Politician.  Her biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller (born 12 December 1945) is a Jamaican former politician. She served as Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2006 to September 2007 and again from 5 January 2012 to 3 March 2016. She was the leader of the People's National Party from 2005 to 2017 and the Leader of the Opposition twice, from 2007 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2017. While serving as prime minister, Simpson-Miller retained the positions of Minister of Defence, Development, Information and Sports. She has also served as Minister of Labour, Social Security and Sport, Minister of Tourism and Sports and Minister of Local Government throughout her political career. Following her election win in December 2011, when her party defeated the Jamaica Labour Party, she became the second individual since independence to have served non-consecutive terms as prime minister, the first having been Michael Manley. The People's National Party under her leadership lost the 25 February 2016 general election by only one seat to the Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party. One political commentator described the poll as "the closest election Jamaica has ever had". Following this defeat, Simpson-Miller stepped down in 2017. Simpson-Miller was ranked by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. In 2011, she was named Person of the Year by The Gleaner and Observer.

Photo of Michael Manley

3. Michael Manley (1924 - 1997)

With an HPI of 46.28, Michael Manley is the 3rd most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been described as a populist. He remains one of Jamaica's most popular prime ministers.

Photo of Kenneth O. Hall

4. Kenneth O. Hall (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 42.79, Kenneth O. Hall is the 4th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sir Kenneth Octavius Hall (born 24 April 1941) served as the governor-general of Jamaica from 16 February 2006 to 26 February 2009. He was Jamaica's fifth governor-general since independence in 1962.

Photo of Andrew Holness

5. Andrew Holness (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 42.38, Andrew Holness is the 5th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Andrew Michael Holness, (born 22 July 1972) is a Jamaican politician who has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since 3 March 2016, having previously served from 2011 to 2012, and as Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) since 2011. Holness previously served as prime minister from 23 October 2011 to 5 January 2012. He succeeded Bruce Golding as prime minister and decided to go to the polls in the 29 December 2011 general election in an attempt to get his own mandate from the Jamaican electorate. He failed in that bid, however, losing to the People's National Party led by Portia Simpson-Miller, with the PNP gaining 42 seats to the JLP's 21. Following that defeat, Holness served as Leader of the Opposition from January 2012 to March 2016, when he once again assumed the position of prime minister. In 2020, the Labour Party won a landslide in another general election, and on 7 September Holness was sworn in for another term as prime minister. In October 2011, at the age of 39, Holness became the youngest person ever to be prime minister in Jamaica's history. In March 2016, aged 43, he became the youngest to ever be elected prime minister. He is also the first prime minister to have been born after Jamaica gained independence in 1962. He is currently the longest serving prime minister from the Jamaica Labour Party.

Photo of Howard Cooke

6. Howard Cooke (1915 - 2014)

With an HPI of 41.43, Howard Cooke is the 6th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Sir Howard Felix Hanlan Cooke (13 November 1915 – 11 July 2014) served as the fourth governor-general of Jamaica from 1 August 1991 to 15 February 2006.

Photo of Bruce Golding

7. Bruce Golding (b. 1947)

With an HPI of 41.13, Bruce Golding is the 7th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Orette Bruce Golding (born 5 December 1947) is a former Jamaican politician who served as eighth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 11 September 2007 to 23 October 2011. He is a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which he led from 2005 to his resignation in 2011.

Photo of Alexander Bustamante

8. Alexander Bustamante (1884 - 1977)

With an HPI of 41.10, Alexander Bustamante is the 8th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Sir William Alexander Clarke Bustamante (born William Alexander Clarke; 24 February 1884 – 6 August 1977) was a Jamaican politician and labour leader, who, in 1962, became the first prime minister of Jamaica.

Photo of Hugh Shearer

9. Hugh Shearer (1923 - 2004)

With an HPI of 39.36, Hugh Shearer is the 9th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Hugh Lawson Shearer (18 May 1923 – 15 July 2004) was a Jamaican trade unionist and politician, who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1967 to 1972. He was also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade from 1980 to 1989, under Edward Seaga.

Photo of Norman Manley

10. Norman Manley (1893 - 1969)

With an HPI of 35.92, Norman Manley is the 10th most famous Jamaican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Norman Washington Manley (4 July 1893 – 2 September 1969) was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only Premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British colonial government to the colony in 1944. Encouraged by Osmond Theodore Fairclough, who had joined forces with the brothers Frank and Ken Hill, Hedley P. Jacobs and others in 1938, he helped to launch the People's National Party which later was affiliated to the Trade Union Congress and even later the National Workers Union. He led the PNP in every election from 1944 to 1967. Their efforts resulted in the New Constitution of 1944, granting full adult suffrage. Manley served as the colony's Chief Minister from 1955 to 1959, and as Premier from 1959 to 1962. He was a proponent of self-government but was persuaded to join nine other British colonies in the Caribbean territories in a Federation of the West Indies but called a referendum on the issue in 1961. Voters chose to have Jamaica withdraw from the union. He then opted to call a general election even though his five-year mandate was barely halfway through.

People

Pantheon has 12 people classified as Jamaican politicians born between 1781 and 1975. Of these 12, 4 (33.33%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Jamaican politicians include Portia Simpson-Miller, Andrew Holness, and Bruce Golding. The most famous deceased Jamaican politicians include Stamford Raffles, Michael Manley, and Kenneth O. Hall. As of April 2024, 2 new Jamaican politicians have been added to Pantheon including Donald Sangster, and Lisa Hanna.

Living Jamaican Politicians

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Deceased Jamaican Politicians

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Newly Added Jamaican Politicians (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Politicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 7 most globally memorable Politicians since 1700.