The Right Honourable Sir John George Melvin Compton SLC, OCC, KCMG, LLB, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, the three-time leader who guided the country to Independence from Britain, has died at the age of 82.

Compton, who became prime minister for the third time in December, did not resume leadership duties after suffering a series of mild strokes in late April. He died on Friday 7 September at 6.50pm at Tapion Hospital in Castries.

A lawyer, one-time labour leader and a farmer, Compton became chief minister of the then-colony in 1964. Three years later he began negotiating for more autonomy from Britain and became St. Lucia's first prime minister upon independence in 1979. Voted out of power later that year, he returned to govern St Lucia from 1982 to 1996.

Known to St Lucians affectionately as ‘Daddy Compton,’ particularly in the eastern villages where he won his first election in 1954. He gained a reputation for fearlessness as a union leader when he directed a strike against the sugar-growing elite for better labour conditions and was arrested after a confrontation in which he dared a white planter to run him over with a tractor.

During his five-decade political career, he made an enemy of China when his government restored ties with Taiwan, which previously had relations with St. Lucia under his first rule. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, broke off relations and condemned the reversal as a "brutal interference" in its internal affairs.

In the 1960s, Compton oversaw the development of highways, airports, industrial complexes and housing projects on the 620-square-kilometre island.

Born in 1925 on the nearby island of Canouan, St. Vincent, Compton attended high school in St. Lucia and worked in oil refineries in Curacao for two years before studying in the United Kingdom, where he qualified as a lawyer at the University of Wales. He was knighted by the Queen in 1997.

Compton, who founded his United Workers party 43 years ago, had resigned as its leader in 1996 but came out of retirement nine years later after his successor lost general elections.

He defeated Prime Minister Kenny Anthony's bid for a third five-year term at the polls last year in an upset.

A Book of Condolence will be opened at the St Lucian High Commission in London from Wednesday 12th to Friday 21st September, between the hours of 11am and 4pm, to give fellow nationals an opportunity to pay their respects to Sir John.

A State Funeral for the late Right Honourable Prime Minister will take place on Tuesday 18th September, at 1pm at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Castries.