Margai, Milton A(ugustus) S(triery) (1895–1964)

Sierra Leone nationalist leader and politician, prime minister 1959–64. Appointed a member of the protectorate assembly in 1940, he helped found the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1951, and played a major role in pressing for independence. He was chief minister 1954–58 and, as prime minister of a coalition government from 1959, steered Sierra Leone to full independence in 1961. In international affairs he exercised a moderating influence on his contemporaries in other African States. On his death he was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by his half-brother Albert Margai (1910–1980).

Milton Margai was educated in Roman Catholic mission schools, at Fourah Bay College, the University College of Freetown, and at Durham University in the UK, where he qualified as a doctor. From 1928 to 1950 he was government medical officer in Sierra Leone. He was knighted in 1950.