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Isa A. E. Bradley
Isa A. E. Bradley Isa A. E. Bradley the daughter of Thomas Bradley and his wife, Blanche Wattley was born in New Town on the 19th May 1877. The family lived in Salt Pond Alley, then also known as Sugar Loaf Alley, in a house that has belonged to John Thomas Bradley a stevedore. Unmarried and with no children of her own, Bradley was devoted to the teaching profession. Her career started at as a pupil teacher...
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Sir Paul Southwell
Caleb Azariah Paul Southwell Caleb Azariah Paul Southwell was born in Dominica on the 18th July 1913 to Joseph and Amelia Southwell. He attended elementary school and became a teacher at the age of thirteen years then he went on to obtain the Leeward Islands Teachers Certificate. In 1938 he joined the Leeward Islands Police Force, a job that took him to Antigua, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis. He stayed with the Force for six years. In...
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Victor Emanuel John
Victor Emanuel John Victor Emaunuel John was born on the 1st Dec 1877 to Ishmael John and Catherine Phipps. The couple were married on the 23rd Dec of that same year in St. Ann's Anglican Church in Sandy Point. Ishmael John was a St. Vincentian who had been given the appointment of schoolmaster at the Methodist School in Sandy Point, St. Kitts. It was there that young Victor received his early education and developed an ambition and...
Read moreOur Places
Government House
Government House 2015 The land that became known as Springfield was a small part of Diamond Estate. It 1828 it was the property of Sir James Henry Blake, the second son of Sir Patrick Blake of Langham, an absentee land owner. Besides Diamond, he also owned Pinnel, an estate of one hundred and ninety seven acres in the Parish of St. Ann and had land in Montserrat and the counties of Middlesex, Suffolk and Sussex in...
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Buckley’s Estate
BUCKLEY’S ESTATE is located on the western outskirts of Basseterre. In 1753 the plantation was the property of William Buckley. His only surviving daughter and heir Jeannette married Abednego Matthew (b. 1724). He was the son of William Mathew who in 1715 had been appointed Lieutenant-General of the Leeward Islands and from 1735 was Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief. His ancestors included other governors of St. Kitts and the Leeward Islands. When Jeannette Mathew inherited the plantation from...
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Masses House
The Workers League was formed in 1932 and in 1940 its members also formed the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union. Meetings often took place at the building of the Mutual Improvement Society. All three organisations had members in common. Less formal meetings often took place in private residences or at business belonging to the membership. However the activities of the Union worried some of the members of the MIS and both the League and...
Read moreOur Events
An Account of the Damage to St. George's Church from the Earthquake of 1974
An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred at about 5:55 a.m. on October 8th 1974, and did considerable damage to the St George’s Parish Church. The epicentre of this quake was some 40 miles east of Antigua, and 60 miles below the surface of the earth. The nave of the church consists of two rows of stone columns on either side. The first of these columns was separated from the east dome of...
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St. Kitts Music Festival - end of June
The St. Kitts Music Festival takes place every year at the end of June. It was the brain child of then Minister of Tourism and Culture, G A Dwyer Astaphan who wanted to create an event that would attract visitors to St. Kitts in the off season and to expose the creative elements on the island, and the general public to the different genres of music. The festival’s website sets out its objectives as follows: to...
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Buckley's Strike - 28 Jan 1935 (a time line)
Estate Workers 1934, December: The Wade Estates paid their workers a Christmas bonus of 8d per ton of cane cut. Other estates paid only 3d per ton cut. Some estates refused to pay any bonus to their workers. 1935, January: There were cane fires on several sugar estates near Basseterre. 1935, 20 Jan: Estate workers from all over the island attended a Universal Benevolent Association meeting called by its Secretary, Joseph Nathan. He advised them that since there...
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