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William "Bill" Cartwright (c. 1923 – June 7, 2012) was a Bahamian politician, realtor and magazine publisher. Cartwright, together with Sir Henry Milton Taylor and Cyril Stevenson, co-founded the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in 1953, the first national political party to be established in the Bahamas.[1] He was the last surviving member of the PLP's three founders.[2]
Cartwright was a native of Long Island, Bahamas.[2] He was elected to the Bahamas House of Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, in 1949 as a representative of Cat Island.[1] He served in parliament for seven years.[1]
In 1953, Cartwright joined with Sir Henry Milton Taylor and Cyril Stevenson to found the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), the first national political party in the Bahamas.[1][2] Outside politics Cartwright worked as a realtor before becoming a magazine publisher later in life.[2]
Cartwright resided at the Good Samaritan Home in Nassau for the final two years of his life.[2] He died at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau at 4 a.m. on June 7, 2012, at the age of 89.[2]
Bahamas Governor-General Arthur Foulkes had visited Cartwright three weeks before his death.[2] Prime Minister of the Bahamas and leader of the PLP, Perry Christie, presented a speech in honor of Cartwright to the Assembly, calling him a "national hero" who contributed a "historical role he had played in laying the foundations for party politics in The Bahamas."[1][2] Loretta Butler-Turner, the deputy leader of the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) and MP for Cartwright's native Long Island, said that "He is in his own right a founder of the modern Bahamas."[2] Butler-Turner also called for the establishment of a national oral history project following Cartwright's death to preserve the modern, social and national history and national identity of the country.[2]
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