Roland "Pop" Symonette was one of the many children of Methodist minister Edwin Symonette and his wife Lavania (née Weech) on the small island settlement of Current, Eleuthera.
Symonette served as the head of government of the Bahama Islands from 1955 to 1964 and in 1964, when the country achieved internal self-government, he became the first Premier of the Bahama Islands.