Hilda Bynoe

Governor of Grenada (1921-2013)

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|

Dame

Hilda Bynoe

DBE

Governor of Grenada
In office
June 1968 – 21 January 1974
Monarch| Queen Elizabeth II
Premier| Eric Gairy
Preceded by| Ian Turbott
Succeeded by| Sir Leo de Gale
Personal details
Born|

Hilda Louisa Gibbs

(1921-11-18)18 November 1921
Crochu, Grenada, West Indies
Died| 6 April 2013(2013-04-06) (aged 91)
Trinidad and Tobago
Spouse| Peter Cecil Alexander Bynoe
Children| 2
Occupation| teacher, doctor

Dame Hilda Louisa Bynoe, DBE (née Gibbs; 18 November 1921 – 6 April 2013) was the Governor of Grenada between 1968 and 1974.[1][2]

A doctor and hospital administrator, Bynoe was, so far, the only woman to have been a governor of one of the British Dependencies, Hilda Bynoe was the first woman Governor of a Commonwealth of Nations country, becoming Governor of Grenada, Cariacou and Petit Martinique. She spent most of her adult life as a teacher and doctor of medicine in Trinidad and Tobago.[3]

## Early life and career

[edit]

Born in Crochu, Grenada, West Indies, Bynoe was educated at the village school, where her father, Thomas Joseph Gibbs, was headmaster and where her mother, sister and aunts had at one time or the other been teachers, and at St. Joseph's Convent, the island's only Roman Catholic Secondary School for girls. The first few years of adulthood were spent as a teacher at the Convent of St. Joseph in San Fernando, Trinidad, and later at Bishop Anstey High School in Port of Spain, Trinidad, as a science student. In 1944 she left for Europe to study Medicine and graduated from the University of London's Royal Free Hospital, then the London School of Medicine for Women, in 1951.[1]

## Governor of Grenada

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In June 1968, she was appointed Governor of Grenada, the first woman governor in the British Commonwealth and the first Grenada native to occupy the post. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969.

In January 1974, following demonstrations calling for her resignation, Bynoe made a speech over the radio calling for public support. The Prime Minister, Eric Gairy, advised the Queen to dismiss Bynoe, accusing Bynoe of attempting to undermine the Premier's authority to recommend the appointment and dismissal of governors. Gairy then requested permission to retire from the Queen, which was granted.

## Personal life

[edit]

Hilda Bynoe met and married Peter Cecil Alexander Bynoe, a Trinidadian RAF Officer; they had two sons, Roland and Michael. The Bynoe family returned to the West Indies in 1953 and Hilda Bynoe served in Guyana and Trinidad for the next fifteen years.[4]

In 1990, she retired to continue her writing and to assist in the care of her granddaughters Olukemi and Nandi. She continued as Patroness of several organizations, including the Caribbean College of Family Physicians, the John Hayes Memorial Kidney Foundation and the Caribbean Women’s Association. She died, aged 91, in Trinidad.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Cambridge, Ucill (17 March 2013). "First female Grenadian governor Bynoe dies at 91". The Trinidad Guardian. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
2. ^ "Dame Hilda Bynoe". Caribbean Community Secretariat. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
3. ^ a b "Dame Hilda Bynoe, Grenada's First Governor Dies". The Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 8 April 2013. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
4. ^ Neaves, Julien (12 April 2013). "Bynoe hailed as 'Federation' champion". Trinidad Express Newspaper. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Retrieved 11 March 2015.

## Further reading

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* "Caribbean Icons: Hilda Bynoe". Caribbean Icons in Science, Technology, Innovation. National Institute of Higher Ed, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST). Retrieved 22 March 2019.
* Merle Collins, The Governor's Story: The authorised biography of Dame Hilda Bynoe, Peepal Tree Press, 2013. ISBN 9781845232245

## External links

[edit]

* Women in Power excerpt
* Biodata.

Government offices

Preceded by

Ian Turbott

|  Governor of Grenada
1968–1974  | Succeeded by

Leo de Gale

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States