Alexander Pericles Maillis

Former Senator Alexander Pericles Maillis 
was born on Aug. 14, 1916 on Virginia Street, 
Nassau, Bahamas. He is the third son of the 
late Pericles J. Maillis and Kalliope P. Maillis, 
one of the early Greek sponge merchant families
who came to The Bahamas in the early 1900s.

His family has been in the sponge business for 
generations, and distinguished themselves in 
the politics of their ancestral island, which 
has been the world's centre for the sponge trade 
since Roman times. Discovery of sponge beds in 
the New World and political unrest against their 
family who had invested in new sponge diving 
technology, caused the family to send his parents
 to The Bahamas with sufficient capital to get 
started in the sponge buying business.

He graduated from Queen's College where he served
 as Head Boy. At QC, he won the Eliza Young Prize
 for best GCE results and was granted exemption 
from matriculations by the University of Cambridge.

University and army
Alexander's father died in 1926 when he was 10, 
and his widowed mother, with five children, had 
to struggle at a time of depression and hurricanes. 
He took a night job as a bus boy/bartender at the 
St Moritz Hotel in New York while he attended 
New York University where he graduated with a 
Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and 
Economics. He then went on to law school in 
New York.

As a Bahamian-born, a British subject, working 
in the United States during World War II, he was 
drafted under the Anglo-American Treaty, into 
the U.S. Army where he was trained as a Paratrooper. 
He studied the German language at the University 
of Indiana, before going to Liverpool and then to 
Normandy, France where "the Bahamian Sergeant " 
was attached to General Patton's U.S. 3rd Army 
Air Corps Intelligence where he was much liked. 
He was with the Army through Northern France and 
into Germany and after V-day was given an 
in-service Army scholarship for six months at the 
Sorbonne University in Paris as prizewinner of a 
U.S. Army essay on "Reconstructing Europe. 
" After serving five years, he returned home to 
The Bahamas.

Because the British Legion and the R.A.F. do such 
a good job in organised memorials of those who 
fought for our freedom directly under the British Flag, 
modern Bahamians forget that many, many Bahamian boys 
ended up, one way or another, in other allied armies - 
all were heroes - the generation that won the greatest 
and most terrible war - and preserved our modern 
freedoms. Alexander Maillis he was one of them. 
He came home from war with nothing but pride, memory, 
knowledge and experience.

Return home
After returning home in 1946, Alexander did not 
resume his studies - but used some time to sow wild 
oats - for a few years, before he and a brother went 
into the restaurant and night club business 
- the Imperial - within the premises of his father's 
mansion which had been converted to a hotel at his 
father's death. In his Imperial nightclub days he 
distinguished himself in many ways. "Cracked Conch " - 
was invented, named and marketed for the first time. 
Blind Blake, George Symonette and Peanuts Taylor, 
all famous Bahamian entertainers started their 
successful careers with him.

The dream in war - A farm by the sea & marriage
In the late 1940s he began buying land at Adelaide, 
which was added to in pieces over time ... now a 
eautiful farm by the sea - his family's home and 
one of the best mango orchards in the country. 
In 1949, he married Cally Simeon of Tarpon Springs, 
Florida and remains happily married. They raised 
four children, all university graduates who 
themselves continue to work and serve our country. 
There are nine surviving grandchildren.

Back to law
In 1958, he resumed his legal studies under Articles 
in Nassau - eventually becoming an Attorney in July 1967.

Politics again
He involved himself in the politics of the times when 
the winds of change were blowing throughout the British 
Empire and in The Bahamas. He ran for Parliament 
unsuccessfully as an Independent in 1956. Later, 
he became a founding member of the United Bahamian 
Party and the organiser of the Labour and Capital 
movement, which featured in the 1962 election.

Later, and in keeping with promises made to the Labour 
and Capital movement and disillusionment at the coming 
in of casino gambling and other injustices of the time, 
he became a member of the Progressive Liberal Party 
losing his job for having openly campaigned and voted 
for the party three days after the Jan. 10, 1967 poll.

In 1968, and again in 1972, he ran, unsuccessfully, for 
Parliament as a member of the Progressive Liberal Party, 
for St. John's, Spanish Wells and Harbour Island, one of 
the most hostile districts to the then government, and he 
went on to sit within PLP circles in its National General 
Council, and as a Senator from 1972 to 1978.

Other service and contributions
Senator Maillis was one of the founders of the Bahamas 
Society for Christian Unity which evolved into The Bahamas 
Christian Council, and served as its Secretary for about 
10 years. He also served as a Church Trustee and for a 
term as President of his Church Parish Council.

He has been a member of The Bahamas Association for 
the Mentally Retarded, various musical organisations, 
The Bahamas National Trust, among others.