For­mer Prime Min­is­ter of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Sir Lester Bird has died at the age of 83.

Bird died at 6 am on Mon­day morn­ing.

The Of­fice of Prime Min­is­ter An­tigua and Bar­bu­da an­nounced that the coun­try had lost one of its most dis­tin­guished and hero­ic sons.

In con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter who re­turns to the coun­try on Mon­day, the act­ing prime min­is­ter has or­dered that all flags be flown at half-mast be­gin­ning im­me­di­ate­ly. The gov­ern­ment has al­so or­dered that plan­ning to com­mence for a state fu­ner­al at an agreed-up­on date would be held.

Sir Lester Bryant Bird was the sec­ond prime min­is­ter of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da who served from 1994 to 2004, and he was al­so a well-rec­og­nized ath­lete. Sir Bird’s po­lit­i­cal ca­reer be­gan in 1971 he was nom­i­nat­ed for the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Sen­ate. He was al­so named the chair­man of the ALP and the Leader of the op­po­si­tion in that Sen­ate.

Sir Bird first joined his fa­ther’s gov­ern­ment as deputy prime min­is­ter.

In 2014, he was made a Knight of the Or­der of the Na­tion­al Hero (KNH) by An­tigua and Bar­bu­da.