Tears and applause as Alaska Hall is renamed for longtime MP
A ceremony on Court Street outside the headquarters of the Progressive Labour Party dedicated the building to the memory of the late MP Reginald Burrows, who died in 2017.
Alaska Hall, home to the party since 1967, became the Reginald A. Burrows Building yesterday to cheers – while its refurbished upstairs hall keeps the original name of the building.
Sheila Burrows, Mr Burrows’s widow, helped unveil the tribute to her husband, telling the gathering: “Reg was very quiet in his spiritual life but this party was his passion.”
She gave special thanks to party member Glenn Woods, who “would not rest” in leading the renaming of the building to honour his friend.
An emotional Mr Woods told The Royal Gazette: “I have been fighting for years for this. Reg was my mentor.”
Mr Burrows, who served as MP for Southampton East for 35 years from 1968 until 2003 and later sat in the Senate, made personal sacrifices to keep Alaska Hall with the PLP at a time of financial hardship for the party.
Garrett Lowe, the nephew of Stanley Lowe who was Mr Burrows’s running mate in the constituency, said that during the redevelopment of the building in the late 1980s under the late party leader Frederick Wade, Mr Burrows stepped in when “the bank was coming to take the building from us”.
“Reginald Burrows had purchased a family home with his wife but after signing the mortgage said ‘we must sell the home to help out the PLP’.”
He was ultimately repaid.
David Burt told the gathering that Mr Burrows was “not only a dedicated Member of Parliament who proudly represented Southampton East, but also a committed party member who gave his time and resources for the betterment of Bermuda – and also for the PLP”.
The Premier added that “without his unselfish action, we just might not be standing here today outside this building, which is a symbol of the history of this great party”.
Mr Burt said that Mr Burrows’s legacy was “emblazoned now over Court Street”, ensuring his name was “for ever associated with the fight for equality, justice and a fairer Bermuda”.
The ceremony was attended by about 150 past and present party members and MPs as well as union representatives and members of the public.
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