Learie Constantine

Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidads High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UKs first black peer. He playedTest matches before the Second World War and took the West Indies first wicket in Test cricket. An advocate against racial discrimination, in later life he was influential in the passing of the 1965 Race Relations Act in Britain. He was knighted in 1962 and made a life peer in 1969.

Constantine was born in Petit Valley, a village close to Diego Martin in northwest Trinidad, onSeptember 1901, the second child of the family and the eldest of three brothers. His father, Lebrun Constantine, was the grandchild of slaves Lebrun rose to the position of overseer on a cocoa estate in Cascade, near Maraval, where the family moved in 1906. Lebrun was famous on the island as a cricketer who represented Trinidad in firstclass cricket and toured England twice with a West Indian team. Constantines mother, Anaise Pascall, was the daughter of slaves, and her brother Victor, was also a Trinidad and West Indian firstclass cricketer a third family member, Constantines brother Elias, later represented Trinidad. Constantine wrote that although the family was not wealthy, his childhood was happy. He spent a lot of time playing in the hills near his home or on the estates where his father and grandfather worked. He enjoyed cricket from an early age the family regularly practised toge

Source: Wikipedia