Alfred A. Thorne

Alfred Athiel Thorne (August 14, 1871–April 23, 1956) was a statesman, educator, advocate, and key contributor to the history of human rights in the Americas. He became famous for championing human rights during the late nineteenth century, establishing the first free secondary school for poor children in British Guiana in 1894, serving as Mayor of British Guiana's capital city Georgetown, and authoring editorial columns for the British colony's influential newspapers "Echo" and "Outlook".

A. A. Thorne was born in Barbados, British West Indies and became the first person of African descent from any British colony to earn both a bachelor's degree and master's degree from any British University in England, graduating with honors from University of Durham, one of England's oldest universities. He served as an educator, writer and elected official in British Guiana for many decades, creating a positive impact for generations by advocating for the principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination.^[1]

Founding The Middle School

After graduating with advanced degrees from University of Durham, Thorne moved to British Guiana, where in 1894 he founded The Middle School, the country's first free coeducational private school that enrolled children regardless of gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status. The school provided a level of education that rivaled the quality of standards previously available only to students privileged enough to attend the prestigious Queen's College and Bishop's High School.^[1][2]

A. A. Thorne served as the school's Headmaster. The school broke many barriers, enrolling both boys and girls and providing tuition-free private educational opportunity to the poor and underprivileged -- creating educational access across gender lines, ethnic lines, and socio-economic classes in an era long before gender rights and civil rights were protected by the laws of the land.^[3] The private school became known for the high-quality education it provided. It was on par with Queen's College and Bishop's High School.^[1][2]

A. A. Thorne served numerous elected offices including as an elected Legislator and Town Councillor. He is recognized for "throwing open of certain avenues of employment to Guianese".^[3]

Leader, Politician and Writer

A. A. Thorne served a prominent role in public service for more than 50 years in British Guiana, serving the Georgetown City Council for 47 years starting in 1902. Thorne was elected to the Combined Court in 1906. He also served as Deputy Mayor in 1921, 1922 and 1925, and elected to the national post of Financial Representative for the North West District and New Amsterdam (1906-1911 and 1916-1921).^[1]

A. A. Thorne led the British Guiana Labour Union, the country's first worker's union, and subsequently founded and led the country's second trade union, the British Guiana Workers' League, in 1931.[17] He served as the League's leader for 22 years.^[1] The League sought to protect basic human rights and improve the working conditions of people from all ethnic backgrounds including workers of West African, East Indian, Chinese, and Portuguese descent—many of whom had originally been brought to the British colony under a system of forced labor (slavery) or indentured servitude.

A. A. Thorne also served as President of the British Guiana Trades Union Council.^[4] The union represented the human rights interests of a variety of workers including laborer on sugar plantations, municipal workers in Georgetown, and ward-maids at the Georgetown Hospital.^[5] His work laid the foundation for the formation of the Man Power Citizens' Association (MPCA), which he also co-led.

A. A. Thorne was first elected to the Town Council of the British colony's capital city Georgetown in 1902.^[2][6] As a member of City Council, he was active in reform efforts of the colony. Two years after joining the council, in 1904, he published an article in a Boston, MA newspaper about the dominance of the sugar plantation and the sugar industry over all other economic sectors in the country.^[2] After the Argosy newspaper in Georgetown retaliated, A. A. Thorne was awarded $500 by the courts in a successful claim of libel. The now famous court case is documented in Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926.^[7][8]

Thorne entered national politics in 1906 with his election to the post of Financial Representative. He was re-elected in 1916 as a member of the Court of Policy.

Public Service

• Georgetown City Council, 1902-1949
• British Guiana Financial Representative, 1906-1911, 1916-1921
• Deputy Mayor, 1921, 1922, 1925
• The Education Commission, 1924-1925
• The Cost of Living Survey Committee, 1942
• The Franchise Commission, 1942-1944
• The Education Development Committee, 1943-1945
• British Guiana Trade Council Executive Officer, 1945
• The Georgetown Fire Advisory Committee, 1945
• The Georgetown Pure Water Supply Board, 1945-1946

Opinions and Impact

A. A. Thorne argued that the 1919 Colonisation Scheme created friction and negative racial feelings in the colony of British Guiana. He also argued for increases in wages on behalf of East Indians, who were introduced to the colony as cheap labor. He stated that the "meager wages and returns from rice on which the East Indian exists would kill out the negro population rapidly".^[9] He also argued against the colonial control over rice production, a staple sustenance crop in the colony at the time, which was priced higher in British Guiana than in the smaller, neighboring islands. One of his sons, Alfred P. Thorne, built on this information in reference to the dynamics of maintaining a cheapi supply of labor in "under-developed countries" in his book Poor By Design.

Although no formal biography of his life exists yet, he has been widely referenced as a pivotal figure in social activism and change in the Caribbean.^[10][11][12] His perspectives were included in Nancy Cunard's Negro: An Anthology in a chapter titled 'The Negro and his Descendants in British Guiana' ^[13] In it, he describes the social and economic conditions of black people living in the plantation colony of Guiana under Dutch, French and British rule.

Early Life and Family

Alfred Athiel Thorne was the son of Rev. Samuel Athiel Thorne of Barbados and Louisa Jane Alleyne. He was raised and educated in Barbados at Lodge School and Codrington College which, at the time, was associated with the University of Durham in England.

A.A. Thorne’s first marriage was to Eleanor Amanda McLean, a teacher and accomplished artist, they both used their inheritances to set up the Middle School, Thorn's inheritance derived from his maternal grandfather, William Theodore Alleyne. Among his antecedents was Sir John Gay Alleyne, 1st Baronet of Four Hill, who earned such a widely respected international reputation for business and community leadership that after his death, Mount Gay Rum company (the world's oldest running producer of rum) was named in his honor. A.A. Thorne had ten children. (The first was Alfred Hubert Thorne, editor for the Argosy and Chronicle Newspaper in Guyana who had four daughters, Thelma, Joyce, Winifred and Iva; followed by the twins Albert Athiel Thorne, a Chartered Accountant who had two children, Daphne and Leila; and Alfred McLean-Thorne, who studied law in the UK, worked as a justice of the peace in Guyana and had six children: David, who likewise studied in the UK, where he settled, John, who settled in the Netherlands; Lynn and Barbara, who both settled in New York, and Patrick. A.A. Thorne's fourth and fifth children were twins: Alfreda attended college in Barbados, and Elfreda had two children: Audrey Maud and Dennis Fields, and settled in the UK.)

A.A. Thorne became a young widower upon the death of Eleanor Amanda, and thereafter married Violet Janet Ashurst, an educator and artist, daughter of Charles Ashurst and Elizabeth Jane Alexander (whose family originated from Belfast, Ireland). A.A. Thorne remained happily married for the rest of his life. Financially secure, he and his wife Violet had five more children together, all of whom later migrated to the USA as students and young adults: Alfred P. Thorne, PhD, an accomplished economist and educator; Duncan John Vivian Thorne, DMD, a New York-based orthodontist and entrepreneur; Arthur George Thorne, who helped to care for his mother Violet as she reached the age of 99; Aileen Roselle Callender, who became the first black female manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and Cecil Michael Thorne, MD, an accomplished pathologist trained in Germany, France and USA, who served as chief of staff for a leading private hospital in Central Ohio, a lecturer at Ohio State Medical School, and contributor to public service initiatives including Rotary International.

Publications

• 'On Industrial Training in British Guiana', Timehri, 1911 & 1912
• 'Education in British Guiana, Part I', Timehri, 1911 ^[14]
• 'Education in British Guiana, Part II', Timehri, Vol. 11, (third series), (1912).
• 'British Guianese Progress and Limitations', Timehri, Vo1. II, (third series), (1912).
• 'The Negro and his Descendants in British Guiana', Negro: An Anthology, N. Cunard (Ed.), 1934

References