Interesting Facts About Economist Sir W. Arthur Lewis
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Search engine giant Google celebrates Saint Lucian economist Sir W. Arthur Lewis, the first Black professor in Britain’s University and Winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize In Economic Sciences in 1979, with Doodle on December 10, 2020.
Google Doodle for Celebrating Sir W. Arthur Lewis
Here is a look at the life and work of economist Sir W Arthur Lewis.
Personal
Birthname: William Arthur Lewis
Birthdate: January 23, 1915
Birthplace: Castries, Saint Lucia, British Windward Islands
Died on: 15 June 1991 (aged 76)
Death place: Saint Michael, Barbados
Father name: George Ferdinand Lewis
Mother name: Ida Louisa Lewis
Spouse: Gladys Jacobs Lewis
Children: Barbara, Elizabeth
Nationality: Saint Lucian, British
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Education:
Saint Mary’s College Of St Lucia (1929),
BS Commerce,
London School Of Economics (1937),
Ph.D. in Industrial Economics,
London School Of Economics (1940)
Famous as: Economist
Known for:
Development economics
Dual-sector model
Lewis turning point
Industrial structure
History of the world economy
Notable Awards:
Nobel Memorial Prize In Economic Sciences (1979)
40 Interesting Facts about Sir W. Arthur Lewis
Sir Arthur Lewis was a Saint Lucian economist who was notable for his contributions in the field of economic development.
Arthur Lewis’ advanced through the public schools quickly. At the point when he was seven, he needed to remain at home for several weeks in light of a sickness. As of now, his dad decided to teach him so he would not fall behind.
It happened that, Sir W. Arthur Lewis taught Arthur in a quarter of a year as much as the school would educate in two years. Consequently, he was moved from grade 4 to grade 6 when he returned to school.
The rest of his school life and early working life up to the age of 18 were gone through with students or laborers two or three years older than him. This gave Sir W. Arthur Lewis a sense of inferiority as well as an understanding that high marks are not all that matters.
In the wake of finishing his primary schooling at 14 years old, Sir W. Arthur Lewis went to work as a clerk in the civil service since he was too youthful to even consider applying for a scholarship to go to a British university.
In 1932, when Sir W. Arthur Lewis was of the necessary age, he applied for the scholarship and won it.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis was as yet uncertain regarding how to manage his life as the British government imposed a color bar on its colonies and youthful blacks could just browse a few professions.
Arthur Lewis would not like to become a doctor or a lawyer, two professions which were considered the blacks. He wanted to become an engineer yet this appeared to be inconsequential as the government or estates wouldn’t employ a black engineer.
So eventually Sir W. Arthur Lewis decided to study business administration and went to the London School of Economics for a Bachelor of Commerce degree. After he graduated in 1937, with a first-class honors degree, LSE gave the scholarship to do a Ph.D. in Industrial Economics, which he finished in 1940.
At the point when blacks were typically barred from that academic profession, Sir Arthur Lewis broke one barrier after another by the sheer dint of his brilliance.
In 1938, Sir W. Arthur Lewis was allowed a one-year teaching appointment at LSE and the next year it was stretched out into a four-year contract as an Assistant Lecturer.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis got married to Gladys in 1947. Gladys went to England in 1937 and trained as a teacher. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Barbara.
By 1948, Sir W. Arthur Lewis had become a full-time professor at the University of Manchester, and that too when he was just 33 years of age. He spent a decade at the University of Manchester as a Stanley Jevons professor of political economy.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis was a scholar and served as an economic advisor to numerous international commissions and a few African, Asian, and Caribbean governments.
Sir Arthur Lewis served as a consultant to various associations like the Caribbean Commission. He was likewise a member of the Colonial Advisory Economic Council (from 1951 to 1953), Committee for National Fuel in Britain, United Nations Group of Experts, and Board of Governors of Queen Elizabeth House in Oxford.
He likewise served as a consultant to various African and Caribbean governments like Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Nigeria, Barbados, and Ghana.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis was likewise the first Black professor in Britain’s university system and at Princeton University in the United States later on.
Sir W Arthur Lewis was additionally the managing director of the United Nations Special Fund in 1950.
His foundational article “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour” was published in 1954.
In 1959, Sir W. Arthur Lewis acknowledged the post of Head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (U.W.I).
Sir W. Arthur Lewis likewise became the first West Indian born to head the University, serving as Principal and afterward as Vice-Chancellor. As head of the University, he was liable for growing it to a full-fledged independent institution, with enlistment expanding from 690 to more than 2000.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis likewise settled the School of Engineering at the University, exclusively because of his ability to attract funds from the Ford Foundation and the United Nations.
He served at the University until 1963 and the same year he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen.
In 1963, Sir W. Arthur Lewis acknowledged the post as Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Later he was given the prestigious position of James Madison Professor of Political Economics.
From 1966-1973, Sir W. Arthur Lewis served as Chancellor of the University of Guyana.
In 1971, Sir Arthur got back to the Caribbean to set up the Caribbean Development Bank where he served as its first President until 1973 and afterward got back to Princeton.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis was the first person of African origin to get a Nobel Prize in a field other than peace.
Sir Arthur Lewis entered the history book of Saint Lucia and the Caribbean when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1979.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis got the prize after 25 years of contribution to the field of Economics. The Prize was awarded for his research into the economic issues of developing countries.
The researches of Sir W. Arthur Lewis basically managed two models which portrayed and explained different issues looked at by developing countries.
He contributed essentially to the British government policy in his early years, and later in his life applied his economic development ideas as an advisor to different African governments.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis had a distinguished carrier not only in academics. He spent a similar number of years in administration as well.
Arthur Lewis was one of the most prolific writers in Economics. He published 81 professional articles over the period 1941 to 1988 and composed ten books.
Sir W. Arthur Lewis passed on Saturday, June 15, 1991, in Bridgetown Barbados, and was buried on the grounds of Saint Arthur Lewis Community College in St Lucia.
His 81 essays and gathered in a three-volume compilation edited by Dr. Patrick Emmanuel of the University of the West Indies, Institute of Social and Economic Research, and published in 1995.
The Cabinet of Ministers of St. Lucia decided in 1985 to name the recently integrated Morne Educational Complex, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, in recognition of Sir Arthur Lewis.
His representation shows up on the 100 dollars East Caribbean Bill.
Arthur Lewis Auditorium, the main auditorium of Robertson Hall, home of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, was named after him.
The Arthur Lewis Building (opened in 2007) at the University of Manchester was named for him, as he had lectured there for several years before entering governmental positions.
On December 10, 2020, Google praised the late Sir W. Arthur Lewis with a Google Doodle.
