Philip Stanley Wilberforce Goldson (25 July 1923 – 3 October 2001) was a Belizean newspaper editor, activist and politician.
He was also the leading spokesman of the hardline anti-Guatemalan territorial claims National Alliance for Belizean Rights party in the 1990s.
For much of the early 1940s he participated in the Open Forum movement featuring George Price and Leigh Richardson as well as older activists such as Clifford Betson and Antonio Soberanis.
In 1951 both Goldson and Richardson were convicted of "seditious intention" based on an extract from the Belize Billboard, which stated, "There are two roads to self government (Independence).
[3] Prior to going to jail for his ideals Goldson won a seat to the Belize City Council and had served as vice-president (Deputy Mayor) until his conviction.
In 1954 Goldson won a seat in the newly created British Honduras Legislative Assembly,[4] where he was appointed member (quasi-Minister) for Social Services.
Goldson pioneered the village council system, enacted a new education ordinance making primary education free, granting government assistance to secondary schools for the first time and initiated special allowance for retired teachers who up to then did not enjoy pension benefits, confirmed Belize as contributing member of the U.W.I., also established Department of Housing and Planning with Henry C. Fairweather as its first Director and Town Planner, and revised Government Workers Rules establishing the check-off system for trade unions.
Soon after Goldson joined Richardson under the Honduran Independence Party banner and contested the 1957 election unsuccessfully, losing his seat to the PUP candidate.
[5] Goldson was not a candidate for the Legislative Assembly in 1961, but in 1965 won the Belize City-based Albert constituency as leader of the National Independence Party.
Goldson, according to historian Assad Shoman, singlehandedly kept the two party system in Belize alive at a time when citizens distrusted the PUP and ignored the NIP.
Upon the occasion of the Maritime Areas Act's passage in 1991, Goldson led a group of politicians away to start the National Alliance for Belizean Rights (NABR).