FORMER Tobago House of Assembly (THA) chairman Dr Jefferson Davidson has died.

Newsday understands that Davidson, 95, who was appointed chairman in 1986 immediately after ANR Robinson’s departure from the assembly to become Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, passed away on Saturday night at his Mt Grace home.

Davidson was among several prominent Tobagonians and former assemblymen who had supported the Progressive Democratic Patriots in the run up to the December 6, THA election. The PDP eventually secured a 14-1 landslide victory over the PNM.

Former assemblyman George Stanley Beard, who served in Davidson’s administration, described him as a visionar who dedicated his life to the development of Tobago and he upliftment of its people.

“He gave up his wife, his family, to serve. So he was a true patriot because many of us in the earlies would have left the island and many would not have returned home. But he made it his duty to come back and serve that which nurtured him. I did the same,” Beard said in a telephone interview.

But he said Davidson would have like to have seen “much more done (in terms of development) since our time of service.

“Tobago has lost a visionary and it is my hope that Tobago will recognise what the forerunners would have done and set the scene for the development.

“I am not seeing that happening now and it worries me. It worried Jeff because we would talk many times as to the way forward and it was we who set the foundation so there is need for continuity.”

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