Guyanese, Iris de Freitas, was the first female lawyer in the Caribbean and possible The chance discovery on eBay of a postcard featuring a portrait of a young black woman in university robes has led a Welsh university to honour one of its alumni. As part of its International Women’s Day celebrations on Tuesday 8 March 2016 Aberystwyth University, a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales officially named a room in honour of Iris de…
british guiana
Amy Barbour-James (named Caroline Amy Aileen Barbour-James) was a London-born Guyanese civil rights activist and civil servant. Barbour-James was born in London on 25 January 1906 to Guyanese parents, John and Caroline Barbour-James. They were a middle-class family who lived in west London in the early 20th century. Amy’s father, John Barbour-James, was a postmaster in Victoria-Belfield, in Guiana and was transferred to a post office off the Gold Coast (now: Ghana) in 1902. The family later relocated to London in 1905….
Three women, Janet Jagan, Jane Phillips Gay and Jessica Burnham, were the first females elected as Members of British Guiana Parliament in May 1953 after the first universal adult suffrage elections were held in the same year. Former first lady Janet Jagan became the first female Deputy Speaker of the Legislature in 1953; the first female Prime Minister in March 1997 and the first female President of Guyana in December 1997. Jane Phillips-Gay was a…
Amy Elizabeth Imrie (4 Oct 1870 – 4 Apr 1944), Born Pollard, was a British heiress and one of the wealthiest women in Britain who, at the age of 37, became a Roman Catholic Nun, Sister Mary Clare and, subsequently, Mother Superior of the Order of Poor Clares. She was born as Amy Elizabeth Rosalie Pollard in British Guiana to William Branch Pollard and his first wife, Elizabeth Anne (née Blackley). After the death of…
Martha nee Fung Kee Fung was one of the earliest female business owners in Guyana (1800s). She became a landed proprietor who owned many businesses including a rice mill. She bought two abandoned sugar estates Waller’s Delight and Ruimzight at Windsor Forest which she rented to tenants to plant rice. Martha Street in Windsor Forrest is named for her. Sarah Lam-a-Poo born in 1870, was the grandmother of Errol “Ping” Gillette, Guyana’s first Ombudsman after…
Dame Sybil Theodora Phoenix DBE, MBE (born Sybil Marshall, 21 June 1927) is a British community worker. She was born in British Guiana (Guyana), and grew up in Georgetown. She and her fiancé Joe Phoenix moved to England in 1956, and married in June of that year. In 1973 she became the first black woman to receive an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II. Dame Phoenix initially refused to…
Claudette Izel Humprey (nee Masdammer) is the First Female Olympian from British Guiana (Guyana). Born on March 30th, 1936, Claudette atttended the St. Georges Anglican School and subsequently entered the Tutorial High School on an athletic scholarship. Her athletic ability was recognized by the Castello Brothers, founders of Tutorial High school, during the annual public schools’ sports meeting. On account of her sprinting prowess, Claudette represented British Guiana at the 1956 Olympic Summer Games held…