Gilbert Darrell, a veteran politician who died on Friday at the age of 95, was recalled by his colleague Lionel Simmons as a respected figure who capably reached across party lines.

The two were among a group of four Progressive Labour Party Members of Parliament who were expelled from the party in 1985 over a dispute centred on Dame Lois Browne-Evans, then the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Simmons described it as a clash based on leadership style rather than the PLP’s direction.

He said: “It wasn’t against what the party was doing — it was about personality, rather than anyone turning their back on what the party stood for.”

Mr Darrell was an ardent supporter of the bipartisan collaboration, and first elected to the House of Assembly in 1963 as an independent MP for Smith’s South.

As a black landowner, he was able to vote at a time when white Bermudians dominated the political arena. Before 1962-63, black Bermudians could vote — if they owned property of legal size.

While he was deposed in 1968 by C.V. “Jim” Woolridge of the United Bermuda Party, Mr Darrell was appointed to the Legislative Council — now the Senate — in 1972 by the PLP. He returned to the House in 1976 as an MP for Hamilton East.

Mr Simmons, who became an Opposition MP in the 1980s, recalled Mr Darrell as a mentor who “impressed on me how the House worked”, as well as advising him on business.

The two were party to a group who would meet early in Parliament to discuss politics, he said. Mr Simmons said he was “impressed by the fact that Mr Darrell would cross the line to talk with other members”.

“He would never think of the other side as the enemy.”

Former senator LaVerne Furbert, Mr Darrell’s niece, called him a devoted family man, adding: “He was a patriarch of our family. He was very serious, but a very caring uncle, always involved in the community.”

Mr Darrell built his family homestead on Knapton Hill and adamantly took care of the property himself, she said. Mr Darrell began to clash with Dame Lois and unsuccessfully challenged her for the leadership of the PLP in 1983. In 1985, he was among six dissidents expelled, including four MPs that included Austin Thomas and Walter Brangman.

Ms Furbert recalled: “At that time, I worked for the Opposition leader — so this was not pleasant for me.”

Mr Darrell argued at party meetings in favour of a more centrist PLP, she said. Premier Sir John Swan took advantage of the Opposition discord in 1985 to call a snap election in which the PLP took a drubbing from his United Bermuda Party.

The four MPs, who tried to rejoin the Opposition, then created a third party, the National Liberal Party, that same year. Mr Darrell spent several years as its chairman. The NLP became defunct after the 2003 election.

Born in Flatts in 1923, Mr Darrell was fired up politically by injustice as a young man working in the Castle Harbour Hotel, when he and several other porters were fired after asking for a raise.

In 1990, he described it to the Mid-Ocean News as “an indignity that demanded political action”.

His business career began with a grocery store in Flatts, and he later set up shop with Gilbert Darrell Store Equipment in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the NLP failed to emerge as a significant third party, but Mr Darrell remained a critic of the acrimonious party politics under the Westminster model. In 1990, he called for “more equitable participation in the House of Assembly” and encouraged cross-party committees to work together on important issues.

Support for the NLP waned steadily after the party lost its two MPs — Thomas and Darrell — in successive elections in 1989 and 1993.

From fielding eight candidates in their first election in 1985 — just two months after it was formed — the NLP increased that number to 15 for the 1989 Election. In 1993, it only fielded eight candidates and party leader, Mr Darrell, lost his seat in Hamilton East.

He went from top of the polls in 1989 to second-last as another PLP newcomer — Renée Webb — led the count.

“We were naive in thinking we would make some progress,” Mr Darrell said of that election. By 1998, the party was down to four candidates. In the 2003 General Election, it only received 31 votes and no seats in the House of Assembly.