HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY, DAME HILDA

Merle Collins


Dame Hilda Louisa (Gibbs) Bynoe is 90 today, November 18, 2011. Born in Crochu, St. Andrew’s, Hilda was the second of the two daughters of Hon. T. Joseph Gibbs (Uncle Joe) and his wife Louisa. On June 8th, 1968, Dr. Hilda Bynoe, then a medical doctor in Trinidad, was, at the suggestion of Premier Eric Gairy, appointed to the office of Governor of the State of Grenada. In 1969, following her appointment, Dr. Bynoe was given by the Queen the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire. Dame Hilda, whose term of office lasted from June 1968 to January 1974, was Grenada’s last Governor under the British colonial system.


As Dame Hilda celebrates her 90th birthday, there are many positive things to recall about her role and her period as Governor of the tri-island State. She was the first female Governor in the British Commonwealth and the first Governor rooted in the local story, the first who, when her appointment was announced, was seated on a plum tree in Crochu, on the land where her ancestors were buried. Dr. Bynoe is very proud of her ancestry. Her maternal grandmother was Mayette, a Carib woman, whose story is rooted in the history of the region: Captured in Trinidad waters by British soldiers, two Carib maidens, Mayette and her sister, escaped off the coast of Grenada, when the boat stopped for water. Good swimmers, the sisters jumped overboard and headed for shore. Mayette made it. Her sister was not heard from again. Dame Hilda remembers that one day, playing on the hill in Mayette’s yard, she and other children were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. The child Hilda said she wanted to be a doctor. The thought probably came from seeing the status of the doctor in the community. It was a “prophecy” her family would not let her forget. Of other stories of ancestry, Dr. Bynoe says, ~My ancestors came out of Europe, out of Africa and out of ancient America, a wee bit of all sorts of things and a preponderance of Africa.


Hers is a very Caribbean story of migration and racial and cultural admixture. Her paternal grandmother was Ma Sese, whom she describes as “a Yoruba woman” who migrated to Grenada from Dominica, in the immediate post-emancipation period, when Grenada had more land to offer those who were recently freed from enslavement. Her father’s father migrated from Barbados after an argument with his family and, in Grenada, changed his name to Gibbs. Her maternal grandfather was a Redhead, descended from Scottish brothers who had migrated to the island.

Hilda Gibbs won a scholarship to St. Joseph’s Convent, St. George’s, taught at St. Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando, Trinidad, and later won a Colonial Development and Welfare scholarship to study medicine in England. She travelled to England during wartime. In England, she qualified as a doctor and was also married to Royal Air Force (RAF) officer Mr. Peter Bynoe, a Trinidadian who qualified in England as an Architect. Their children, Roland and Peter, were born before they returned to Trinidad. Before becoming Grenada’s Governor, Dr. Bynoe worked as a medical doctor in Guyana and Trinidad.

During her period of office in Grenada, Dame Hilda Bynoe was concerned to ensure that Carriacou had doctors available to the community. On one occasion, she suggested that she go as doctor if other doctors could not be found. In an address to students at St. Joseph’s Convent, she advised the girls that they needed to think not only of marriage as a future career but should ensure that they got a good education for their own advancement as well. In that period of the turbulent seventies, she eventually wore an Afro hairstyle, certainly an important decision for one in her office. Dame Hilda was also responsible for organizing to have St. Lucian playwright and poet (and now Nobel laureate) Derek Walcott visit the island with his plays Dream on Monkey Mountain and Ti Jean. These are just some of the quiet interventions that had an impact on the shaping of the Grenadian imagination.

As Dame Hilda Bynoe celebrates her ninetieth birthday, we look back at some of the hidden stories of her period of office and express our appreciation for the ways in which the trajectory of her life intersected with the lives of her fellow-Grenadians and other Caribbean nationals. Dame Hilda Bynoe is an elder who has given a lot of herself. We take the opportunity of her ninetieth birthday to express our appreciation.



Dr Merle Collins is poet, novelist and university professor